Rising of the Shield Demon - Part 1
by The Dark Dragen
Summary: Read to see how a young man is summoned to become hero, but instead, becomes a demon lord thanks to one kingdoms hatred of the Shield Hero, where its actions created the demon they feared instead of a hero they needed. EVENTUALLY Darker/Evil/Naofumi/Harem Female Ren. AU. Lemons/Limes. SLOW MOVING STORY! You have been warned!
1. Prologue

_**Rising of the Shield** __**Demon**__…_

_**By **_

_**Dark Dragen**_

_**Summary:**_ How would the story turn out if instead of becoming the hero that we know, Naofumi became the demon that they said he was. One that would want to take over the land instead of helping it. Read as a hero become a demon thanks to one kingdoms hatred of the Shield Hero, where its actions created the demon they feared instead of a hero they needed.

_**Warnings:**_ Naofumi and Raphtalia will be darker, slightly stronger in attack power and will know some magic, and whilst he wasn't strong in it, he had magical power so going to give him some. Hoping to make him into a badass Demon Shield… there'll be slavery, sex, gender swap and so on. If you read my other works, you should know what to expect. I'm also overhauling the system and a few other things, so expect a few changes to fit my needs and a few races and monsters added from other games.

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not in any shape or form own Rising of the Shield Hero, it belonged to Aneko Yusagi, its writer. The only things I own is the new systems that I add and any shields, powers and slaves that I create. If I use any shields/characters from another story, I'll let you know.

_**Prologue.**_

_**Dark Beginnings!**_

_Raphtalia, Azeroth 20, Year 740, Rurorona Village_

Our story begins in a world known as Azeroth, where humans, demons, demi-human, monsters and such exist, not only that but there are many islands that float in the sky, where the only way up there is by flying boats. Now, in some parts of the world, they either live peacefully together or they have countries of their own where no other race could live in that country.

Now our story begins in a small village called Rurorona Village, in the kingdom of Melromarc. This village was the only place that demi-humans could live peacefully in Melromarc, as the kingdom was a human superiority kingdom. It was thanks to Queen Mirellia Q Melromarc, that they had this village, it was a way to fix the bad blood between humans and demi-human. It was worse here Melromarc, as they hated Siltvelt and the demi-humans from there. People from Melromarc believed that they were better than the demi-humans.

But with the Queen trying to make things better, at least they now had a village with Melromarc to call their own. And to protect them from the rest of the country, the Queen had her most trusted and loyal ally, Lord Eric Seaetto, protecting them from those in Melromarc who meant them harm.

Now the village was small and had two main farmlands to grow food and animals, this was so that they didn't have to deal with those outside of the village. If there was anything they needed outside of the village, they would have bodyguards protecting them so that Slave Hunters didn't capture them and enslave them, or they would ask Lord Seaetto to bring what they needed into the village.

In this village, there was a young female raccoon-like demi-human, known as Tanuki, who was about to leave him to play with her friends. As she was leaving, she called out to her mother who was cleaning their home up, "I'm going out, mum!"

"Make sure you are back for lunch Raphtalia!" her mother called out to her.

"Okay, mum!" called out Raphtalia, "Well dad be back from seeing Lord Seaetto?"

"He should be dear," her mother told her, "it's just the basic meeting to see if this village needs anything and report what is going on with the rest of the land." You see, Raphtalia's father, apart from being the village's chief, was a kind of ambassador for the demi-human village, giving their Lord reports when needed and reporting anything that they needed, in return, the lord of the land would give them news about what was going on in Melromarc.

"See you later mum!"

As Raphtalia left her home, she smiled seeing how the weather was so amazing that day. The sun was out and there were no clouds at all. There were no signs that anything was wrong, that Raphtalia's life along with the rest of the villagers would be turned upside down.

Either way, once Raphtalia said bye to her mother, she headed for the town square, where Keel and the others were waiting for her.

"Hey, you really came!" Keel told her happily, he was a Wanui, a dog-like demi-human.

"Sure I did." Raphtalia told her friend.

Keel wiggled his little dog-like ears while he waited for her.

The other kids were already there.

"They said we can't go to the ocean today because Sadeena isn't here. I said it would be fine, but still…" Keel began to explain what he wanted to do that day.

"But Keel, you almost drowned last time." Raphtalia reminded her friend, worried what might happen if they go without Sadeena.

"Oh shut up!" Keel snapped, not liking being reminded about it, "Anyway, let's play in the fields today."

"Okay!" Raphtalia agreed, with everyone nodding in agreement.

"All right, let's go! You'd better stick with me so you don't get lost!" Keel told them.

"Who do you think you're talking to? I'm a fast runner!" Raphtalia reminded her friend.

The friends all raced each other out to the fields.

But really, Raphtalia was a fast runner. She was probably just as fast as Keel, and everyone said that he was the fastest.

Once Raphtalia started running, everyone fell into line behind her.

"You really are fast!" one of her friends told her.

"If you throw your arms out ahead of you and think about running faster, you'll really increase your speed." Raphtalia tried to tell one of the slower kids how to run fast, as they were talking about it as they arrived at the field.

Raphtalia's parents had said that they needed to be careful around here, as there are meant to be monsters around. But whenever they came here before, they never run into any real danger, just like that day.

"What do you want to do today?" Raphtalia asked her friends and Keel as he arrived.

"Ah shoot! I lost. I swear that I'll beat you next time!" Keel shot his friend a nasty look, unhappy about losing to her.

'_Heh, heh. This is going to be a good day.'_ Raphtalia thought with a smile.

"How about we play tag?" asked Raphtalia, seeing how none of them.

"Sounds good!"

"Yeah!"

Everyone agreed with her plan.

"I'll be it! I'm going to catch you!" this came from Keel.

"You won't catch me!"

Keel really hated to lose, but that was one of the best things about him.

"Ahahaha!"

"Shoot! Wait up!"

Keel seemed like he was actually upset. He only chased after Raphtalia.

Eventually, they all tired out and they all decided to take a break.

"What should we do next?"

"Everyone can still play, right?"

"I don't have to help out at home, so I can still play."

For whatever reason, there were times when everyone had stuff they had to do at home. Raphtalia sometimes helped her mum with cooking.

"Let's play tag again!"

"But I'm so tired. Let me catch my breath."

Keel had way too much energy. Raphtalia guessed boys were like that.

"Whatever. Then the rest of us will play without you."

"Yeah!"

All the boys got up and went to play tag.

"They sure are energetic."

"I know!"

The girl next to Raphtalia, Rifana - a weasel demi-human, agreed with me. They both sat and watched the boys play.

"Hey, who do you like?" asked Rifana.

"Hmmm…" hummed Raphtalia thoughtfully, she never really thought about it before.

They were all close to the age where they started to care about love and relationships.

Over the last few months, they started talking about who was dating who and who they thought would get married. Before long we were both talking excitedly.

"Maybe someone like my dad!" Raphtalia told her friend.

"That's cheating! He needs to be the same age as you!" Rifana informed her.

"Hmm…" hummed Raphtalia thoughtfully, as she turned to watch the boys playing. She had to admit that

Keel was probably the coolest boy among them. He had a good face. But, and she knew that she shouldn't think about things like this, but she never liked the look of her own face in the mirror.

If they went to the nearby town, there were a lot of cute girls around and the older they got the more obvious their beauty became.

The thing was, her race wasn't highly regarded for their beauty…

But her dad was cool and he was handsome. She wanted to be like her dad.

Everyone said that her mum was cute. She was really nice too, and she knew how to cook…

Raphtalia had to wonder… would she be pretty when she grows up? She had asked her mum that question before.

But she just smiled and nodded.

So Raphtalia was pretty sure that she would be pretty once she grew up.

Another time, Raphtalia asked her what it was like to fall in love with a man. Is it different from loving your family?

Her mother looked confused.

Raphtalia guessed she loved men differently from the way she loved her.

"I think there are different ways to like people." Raphtalia told her friend, "My mum once said that she liked people differently from the way she liked me."

"Yeah! I get that." Rifana admitted, "But I want to marry someone like… someone like the Legendary Shield Hero!"

Rifana was Raphtalia's best friend from the village. But she was more girly than the raccoon girl was, she liked to talk about love and boys. She especially liked to talk about the records of the four Holy Heroes, because it said that the Shield Hero was nice to demi-humans.

"Well, I…"

But just then…

Up until that point, Raphtalia had never thought that her life would consist of anything other than a succession of peaceful days. She had really believed it.

_Ping!_

A loud sound echoed over the fields

Just as Raphtalia started to wonder what it could be, the air started shaking, and a sudden and powerful wind blew.

"Ah!"

"Kyaaah!"

"What the?"

The children all fell to the ground and waited for the wind to die down.

A moment later the wind faded. Everything was quiet.

"What was that?!"

"Hey, look at that." Keel called out as he pointed to the sky.

Raphtalia looked to where he was pointing and was stunned to silence.

The sky looked like it had been ripped open with a knife. It was covered in a deep red crack, like a tortoiseshell. It was eerie. It worried Raphtalia.

"What should we do?"

"My parents said to come back to the village if anything happened." Raphtalia told them, worried this could be dangerous.

"If we don't check it out now, we might not ever have a chance again." Keel told them, as he wanted to see what this could be.

"No! Keel!" Raphtalia told her friend, "All we know this could be some sort of warning to some sort of danger. I don't want to head out, only to be attacked by some monsters or demons."

The other kids and Raphtalia all held Keel back, as they went back to the village together.

_**o0OoO0o**_

"Raphtalia!" a male voice called out to her, the voice sounded worried and frightened.

"Daddy!" Raphtalia called out when she saw her father, who returned from seeing the lord of this lands. She rushed over to him.

"Are you okay? I was so worried!" asked her father.

"I'm okay." Raphtalia reinsured her father, "You said to come back if anything happened, so I rushed back here."

"Good girl." Her father told her as he rubbed her head.

Raphtalia watched as her dad started talking to all the other adults.

"Everyone listen up." Raphtalia's father called out to gather everyone there to him, "I've just come from seeing the lord of these lands. He says that those cracks in the sky were some sort of portals and that huge crowds of monsters are swarming out of them."

"Does that mean that we have to fight them?" asked one of the villagers.

"I think it does." Raphtalia's father informed the village.

There was a terrifying howl coming from the cracks in the sky.

Raphtalia's tail started swishing aggressively at the sound of the howl. It was so scary.

"Will we be okay?" asked another villager.

"Hm…." Raphtalia's father had to think about this, he wanted to say yes they would be okay, give them some hope, but he knew it would be a lie.

But before he could decide what to say, there was a scream and someone called out, "H… Hey! We're in trouble! The monsters have already flooded the town! It's like hell out there!"

An old man from the village ran in and announced the news. His face was pale.

"But… How? How could they have gotten here so fast?!"

"The Lord has commanded us to evacuate as quickly as possible!" Raphtalia's father told them all, "He has already called for support from the castle!"

"What had happened to the lord?"

"I don't know, but he has left instructions for everyone to evacuate as soon as possible!" said Raphtalia's father.

"Ugh…"

The adults looked very upset as they talked.

"And Sadeena is away, and all the hunters are out fishing…"

"There's a big storm out at sea too. Who knows if they will be able to return safely?"

The sky was looking worse and worse.

Just then there was a large, strange sound. Everyone turned to see what it was.

"What… is that?!"

There was something there, like… like a person made of bones. It was stumbling and dragging its feet as it walked in their direction.

It was carrying something like a weapon in its bony hands, and it was shining with a dull light.

Raphtalia felt scared. She was scared down to her bones.

It was a monster.

That was the only word that fits, and it described it perfectly.

"Uh… aaaaaahhhhhh!"

The adults all screamed and started to run away.

The rest of the villagers all started to scream too.

Raphtalia's father jumped in front of the monster to head them off.

"I command the very root of power. Light! Slay the beast before me!" began Raphtalia's father, "First Holy!"

A ball of magical, sparkling light flew from Raphtalia's father's outstretched hands, and the bone monster collapsed.

"Everyone please calm down and listen to me." the village leader called out, "We need to evacuate here as soon as possible. While our tribe commands great power, we have no hope of standing up to such numbers."

"You're right."

Raphtalia's mother threw a hatchet at a skeleton as she agreed with her father.

But there were still large numbers of skeletons heading for the village.

"We will stay here and buy time. The rest of you…" Raphtalia's father told them.

"Uh… okay."

"Y…Yes."

"All right. If you are sure…"

Everyone caught their breath for a moment before beginning the evacuation.

They decided to head for a town on the harbour. Even in a storm, they still might be able to escape on boats, out into the sea.

_**o0OoO0o**_

"AAAHHHHHH!"

But things didn't go as planned, as there were too many monsters in the way, forcing them to hide or run away.

"Damn these monsters!" one of the villagers said darkly.

Before long a large beast with three heads was running into the village.

Raphtalia's parents were fighting it with all their might, but it wasn't enough. The beast was too fast; it kept dodging Raphtalia's father's magic and her mother's hatchet.

"Gaahhhh!"

The beast violently swung its clawed paw and Raphtalia's father and another villager went flying through the air. They both fell to the ground, their joints twisted.

'_Huh? What?'_ Raphtalia thought in fear, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her father was the best Magic User she knew, she couldn't believe that this monster defeated him so easily.

"Wh… WHAAAAAAAAA!"

"AAAAAHHH!"

The villagers started panicking and running as fast as they could.

They ignored Raphtalia's father's shouts for order and ran for the ocean.

The panicking villagers pushed by Raphtalia and she fell to the ground.

"Everyone, wait for just a second!" Raphtalia called out.

"Are you okay?" It was her mother, who helped her up and hugged her.

But her face was pale.

A three-headed dog was chasing down the villagers, attacking them with its fangs and claws.

"I'm… scared…" Raphtalia told her mother, frightened at what might happen to them.

Her mother ran her fingers through her daughter's hair, and said softly to comfort her, "It's okay. We'll be just fine, don't you worry."

"Um…Um…"

If her mother said they would be okay… they would be… right?

"We're going." Her father said

Raphtalia's father started running off with a limp after the other fleeing villagers. Raphtalia's mother and she followed close behind.

The villagers arrived at a cliff by the sea and started jumping into the ocean.

The dog was chasing after them. And then, Raphtalia couldn't believe it! The dog jumped into the ocean after them and started eating the swimming villagers.

The ocean turned red.

"Wahhhhhhh!"

"Dammit, we were too late!"

Raphtalia's father was screaming. He and her mother ran off to attack the dog and defend the remaining villagers. Raphtalia hid behind them. Frightened and scared at what she saw and what was happening to her village, so many people dead, she couldn't believe that she was seeing.

"Aaaaah!"

The huge, three-headed dog leapt out of the ocean and turned to face us. It howled. It cornered them against the cliff so that they had nowhere to run.

"Grrr…"

The three-headed dog leapt at them, its claws out.

Her father was able to bat away the monster's claws with his magic, but then a shower of blood sprayed from his shoulder.

"Dear, are you all right?" her mother asked her.

"I'm fine… but…" Raphtalia tried to talk but she couldn't. They were up against the cliff. The other villagers were all already in the ocean, but more than half of them had been… had been…

"Ahhh…"

Raphtalia was so scared. She held onto my mother's back.

Everyone below was swimming to save their own lives, but the current was strong, and they kept getting pulled further out to sea. They were going to drown.

"If we don't take care of this thing, he'll follow the villagers into the sea and kill them all." Raphtalia's father told his wife.

"I know…" admitted Raphtalia's mother with a deep sigh.

"I'm sorry, honey…" Raphtalia's father told his wife.

"I was prepared." his wife told him with a said smile, ready for what they had to do next. They didn't want to do this, but to save their daughter's life, they had to do this.

They finished talking and both turned to Raphtalia.

"Raphtalia." Raphtalia's mother whispered in her daughter's ear softly, getting ready to do the hardest thing she ever has done in her life. But with how things were going right now, she had no option but to do this.

"Wh…What?"

She was rubbing her daughter's back, trying to calm Raphtalia down.

"Don't forget to smile. Be nice to the others." her mother told her with a sad smile, as a tear went down her cheek.

"She's right. When you smile, everyone smiles." her father told her, giving his own sad smile, as he rubbed his daughter's head.

"Raphtalia… things are going to be hard for you for a while. If you aren't careful, you might even die." her mother told Raphtalia.

"But still… even still, Raphtalia, we want you to live. So please, forgive us for our selfishness." her father told her with a deep sigh, getting ready to do what must be done to save their daughter's life.

Raphtalia's heart started pounding… the way they were talking, it was like… it was like she wasn't ever going to see them again.

"Nooo! mummy! Daddy!" Raphtalia began to cry, realizing what they were going to do, "Please don't leave me, please!"

Raphtalia didn't want to leave them.

Her mother pushed her, hard, and Raphtalia flew from the cliff, through the air, and fell into the ocean.

All Raphtalia could see were bubbles popping violently here and there. She hurried to get her head above water.

And then… Raphtalia saw it. She saw the exact second that the three-headed dog leapt at my parents.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The current took Raphtalia, but she kicked the whole way. Trying to get back to her parents, hoping above hope that somehow, someway, they survived somehow and that they were being treated for their injuries and that they would be fine. Hurt, but fine.

_**o0OoO0o**_

It wasn't until the sky was dark, that young Raphtalia found herself on the shore.

Catching her breath from making her way back to the shore, she saw that there were other survivors from the village there too. But some of the dead villagers had washed up as well.

Whilst it was night now, Raphtalia saw that sky had already returned to its normal colour.

Raphtalia had no idea what had happened, nor where these monsters came from.

All the young raccoon girl wanted, was to see her parents again, more than anything. So she hurried back to the cliff where she had left them. As she made her way to the cliff, she found loads of bones lying all around. It looked like reinforcements had arrived from the castle to drive the monsters off.

When Raphtalia arrived to where she last saw her parents, she found strips of flesh and the skeleton of the three-headed dog. Knights and adventurers were carrying it off.

Raphtalia was able to piece together what had happened.

"Well, good thing it had already taken a beating…" said one knight.

"Yeah, otherwise we probably couldn't have beaten it." said an adventurer.

The adventurers and knight were bantering when they noticed the young raccoon girl there.

"What's with the brat? Should we grab her?"

"Wait. We are in the demi-human territory."

"What are you talking about? The area lord is dead, didn't you hear?"

"Oh yeah?"

"Anyway, leave her alone. You know what would happen."

They all split and made room for her to pass.

As she walked to the edge of the cliff, Raphtalia saw what had become of Raphtalia parents. started shaking and sobbing.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Raphtalia saw her father's body with his arms and one of his legs torn from his body, whilst her mother was laying there with her clothes ripped up and a huge gush across her chest, along with a cut on her head. Thankfully though, there was an adventurer trying to heal her.

_**o0OoO0o**_

'_How much time had passed?'_ Raphtalia thought to herself, it was morning and she had already made a grave for her father. Her mother was in a medical tent that was set up, unconscious. Whilst the adventurer was able to heal her, the adventurer informed Raphtalia that it could take days, weeks even months before she would awake, if ever. As whilst the adventurer was able to heal the body, he wasn't able to do anything about the mind. That was one magic he didn't have, the ability to heal the mind, so it was a matter of the mind healing itself and that would take time if they were lucky. As it could be possible that the mind would never be able to heal itself.

"_Don't forget to smile. Be nice to the others."_

"_She's right. When you smile, everyone smiles."_

Those were the words that she remembered that her parents telling often. They had given their lives to save the other villagers and they had entrusted the survivors to their daughter.

Raphtalia would show them… she would be good to everyone! Raphtalia wouldn't let her father's death to be in vain… that she would prove that until her mother awakes, she was just as good as a leader as her father was.

'_If I just stayed there crying, my parents would be upset.' _Raphtalia thought to herself

"I won't cry anymore. I'm going now…" Raphtalia said aloud as she started walking back to the village.

"Uhuuuuhh…."

"Daddy… mummy …"

The villagers that had run for the ocean had formed a crowd. There were many more children than adults.

"Is that Raphtalia?!"

"Yes."

"Did your parents make it?"

An old man who had been our neighbour asked Raphtalia. He looked concerned.

The young girl tried as hard as she could not to cry. "M, mum, is alive b, but unconscious, b, but…" Raphtalia tried to tell them that her father, but she couldn't. She knew if she did, she might cry, and that's one thing she was trying not to.

"Oh… That's…"

He was unable to find any words. He must have known that anything he said would make the young girl cry.

"It's okay. My parents told me to cheer everyone up. "

"Did they? You're such a strong girl."

"Hee, hee."

'_Am I laughing?' _Raphtalia asked in shock, unable to believe that she was laughing, but then she realized she was fine with that. If she cried, her parents would be upset.

"Everyone!" Raphtalia shouted to get everyone's attention, and all the eyes of the crying children were on her. "I know that you are all sad. I am too. But would our parents and brothers and friends want us to stay here and cry?"

Everyone seemed troubled by her words. They were twisting their faces up.

Raphtalia put her hand on her heart and stepped forward. "To all of you that think our loved ones haven't died, I ask you, how would they feel if they came back to our village and found it like this?"

Right. This was everyone's village. They couldn't just leave it how it was.

Her dad and the lord had always said that the village was a family that they all made it together.

"I know how sad you are. Believe me, I know." Raphtalia told them all, "But that is all the more reason to rebuild. I mean, we're a family!"

'_Yes, father had always said so.' _Raphtalia thought to herself, _'He said to treat the rest of the village as if they were part of our family. So I would do it. I would take care of them all, just like father had said.'_

"Right? Please?" Raphtalia as she said this, she did all she could to summon a smile.

"Raphtalia…"

"Raphtalia, aren't you sad?"

"Why are you smiling? Your father died!"

Raphtalia's smile weakened at their exclamation.

She wouldn't cry… if she started crying, Raphtalia knew that she would never be able to stop… "Right… I'm… not… sad."

'_I can't cry. If I started to cry, no one would be able to comfort me.'_ Raphtalia thought to herself, within a few moments she heard the villagers start saying things like this:

"Oh…"

"Look at how hard this girl is trying! Come on everyone. If she can do it, we can do it!"

"Yeah!"

"Okay!"

"You're right, Raphtalia! I'll do my best too!"

Keel had been crying, but he turned to her, invigorated.

"Yes!"

The lord of the land had given their village a flag. It had been a present and a symbol of the town.

Just then it fluttered down from above and fell before Raphtalia. It was like it was agreeing with her.

That was it. It was a sign, a sign that Raphtalia's father was watching over them.

Raphtalia picked up the flag and the other villagers brought over a large pole for it. They attached the flag to the pole.

"It's a sign from heaven! Let's work to rebuild our village!"

"Yeah!"

And so everyone decided to try and rebuild.

For the rest of the day, the villagers began to clear up all the rubble from the destroyed buildings and set tents for those whose homes were destroyed. Raphtalia and her mother's home had been burned to the ground - most homes had. So they set up a few tents for people to sleep in.

At night, whilst there were a few people keeping watch to make sure that no monsters were around, the others were sleeping. During the night though, there was a loud scream from Raphtalia.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Raphtalia was instantly awake. She was inside one of the tents that they had set up.

"Hey, did you hear that voice?"

An older man was rushing over in Raphtalia direction, as he asked in concern, "Raphtalia, you were screaming."

"Was I?" asked Raphtalia, not realizing that she did so. She remembered that she had a nightmare about what happened the day before, maybe that was why she screamed. But she knew she couldn't let the people see her sad, she needed to smile. If she didn't, it would worry the rest of them, something she couldn't let happen.

"I'm fine! It was just a bad dream." Raphtalia told the old man.

"Okay… well… don't overdo it." the old man informed her, but he didn't believe that the young girl was telling her everything. But he knew that she wouldn't tell him otherwise unless she was ready, pushing her might make things worse. So he added, "If you need to talk to anyone, please find me, I'm willing to listen to you."

"I'm fine! Thank you though." Raphtalia thanked the man.

'_Father.' _Raphtalia thought sadly, _'I'm doing my best, I promise…'_

_**o0OoO0o**_

The next morning the villagers decided to leave the completely destroyed houses the way they were for now and focus on repairing houses that they could live in sooner. They thought they would be safer if they had walls and a door to protect them instead of a tent.

They also put some people in charge of making graves for the bodies that had washed up on the shore. To give them a proper.

The adults were all focused on rebuilding the town and all the children, lead by Keel, were doing what they could to help.

But they were getting worried about the food supplies. They might not hold out for too long. Whilst we had fishermen to go out to see to catch more, it was normally Raphtalia's father who dealt with getting more food into the village. This lead to two problems, the first was sending the fishermen out to gain more food. The seas were very rough and the villagers were worried that the fishermen would lose their lives, something no one wanted, so they decided it best to save that for later.

This meant that they had to find Raphtalia had to find her father's paperwork, this lead to the second problem. They had to look through Raphtalia's old house, which was burnt to the ground. They could only hope that they were able to find something. Raphtalia knew that because she couldn't read that well right now, she needed the help of someone older to help her. This would mean showing that she couldn't handle things, something she didn't want, but for the village though, she knew she had to ask for help. So she had to find someone she could trust who could help her.

For now, they had to forest what they could and save what food they can from the farms, other than that, they would have to send some hunters out to gather meat of the animals out of the village. Sure it was unsafe, but it was better than going hungry, they could do more to stay safe on land than out in the sea.

After the dead were buried, the counted the surviving survivors, to see how many of them were left. After the count, they learned that there was only one-quarter of the village left alive. Even still, one of the older men said that they had made out better than they could have hoped for.

"It's just like Raphtalia said. We are all still alive."

"Yeah!"

They all had hope now, that over time the village would go back to the way it used to be. But that wasn't on the cards for these people, as scummy-looking human men began to wander through the village as the villagers were fixing up the village, they were pointing their swords at a group of adults.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" asked a male villager.

"Who are you guys?!" asked another. They were frightened, but they had to stand up to protect what was reminded of the village.

"Ahahah! I'd heard that there were still some demi-humans alive here. Guess it was true!" said a male human.

"Yeah, and this area isn't protected. We could probably make some good money!" said another scumbag.

"Yeah! Argh!" said another

One of the older village men stepped forward and yelled at the attackers. "The lord of these lands will never forgive you for this behaviour! There are castle knights still in the area too!"

The nasty-looking men all smiled at once.

"What do we care if your dead lord gets mad? And besides…" began one of the scumbags.

Swipe! It happened quicker than Raphtalia could see. It happened before she could understand what was going on.

The old man's stomach was split open. One of the bad men had cut him with his sword.

"What the…" asked Raphtalia in shock, seeing another of her people dead in so many days.

"Ahaha!" laughed one of the bad men, "Can't you tell? We are the castle knights!"

"They haven't figured it out yet, have they, Boss?" said one of the men.

"Nope!" admitted the boss of this gang.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" the group of humans laughed as one here, as the old man fell over in a pool of blood. He didn't even twitch.

The pool of blood was spreading. Soon it was at Raphtalia's toes.

"Ah! AHHHHHHHHH!"

Suddenly everyone was panicking. Raphtalia didn't know what to do, so she did the only thing she could, she ran.

"Don't let them escape!" the boss told his men, "Kill the old ones! We can sell the women and children, so don't run them down!"

What happened next that day went so fast that Raphtalia couldn't really remember what happened. All she remembered was running to get her mother to keep her safe. But before she could get far, someone had a hold on her hair and someone hitting her on the back of the head, before she blacked out.

_**o0OoO0o**_

A week passed. Raphtalia continued having dreams of her father's death and nightmares about that day and now, she was having nightmares as to what might have happened to her mother. She was worried that they have killed her. Now the people that caught her, sold the young raccoon girl into slavery.

For the last week, she lived in a cage, where an ugly fat man would come every day to bring her food and water to her and the other slaves that he had. After the first week though, she gained her first owner. He seemed to be a nice enough of a person, all he wanted from her was for Raphtalia to act like a servant. But it didn't last for long though, as after a few days with him, he sold her back to the Slave Trader for some reason, a reason that she never knew why.

She gained a new owner a day after she was sold back to the Slave Trader, but he wasn't as a nice of a person, as he had a thing about having sex with demi-humans. That's what Raphtalia thought, seeing he was having sex with demi-humans who were so young. So he brought Raphtalia as a new sex toy, as her new owner loved young demi-humans every now and then. Right now, he was looking for a new young girl seeing how one his old girls got ill and dead, nothing he did helped her or that was what he told the Slave Trader anyway.

Raphtalia was shocked when she got to her new masters home, as she found that her mother was a slave to this man - she was alive and conscious. From what Raphtalia's mother told her daughter, two days after the knights attacking their village and killing the adult men and the elderly and selling the rest into slavery, she awoke and was sold to this master. Here she was made into a sex toy where the master would fuck her. From everything that the mother learned, as long as you treat the master with respect and do what you were told, you would be treated fairly. In fact, the slave that Raphtalia replaced, she really did die from an unknown illness and that she was brought to replace her, nothing sinister happened to the old slave.

For the next few days, her mother taught her everything that she had to know about being a sex toy for their master. How to suck a cock, how to handle a cock in her holes both front and back ones. Their master taught her mother and now Raphtalia, that to make their masters happy, to serve them, the slaves would have to do whatever it took to make their masters happy. Their master told them that the best way to do that was to allow the master to do whatever they wanted to their bodies, not only that, but slaves should take care of their sexual and more needs.

Seeing how her mother told her this was right, the young raccoon girl took everything that her mother taught her to heart. She would do whatever their master wanted and show him how grateful she was for having her and saving her mother. In fact, she was surprised that she took it so well, that she enjoyed what her mother was teaching and couldn't wait to have her master's cock in her.

But before this could happen though, her master sold her to another Slave Trader for reasons she didn't know about. She began to wonder what was she doing wrong, every time she got close to a new master, they sold her back to a Slave Trader for reasons beyond her.

Her next and last owner brought her two days later, was the worst of them all.

"Take that!"

"Ugh…"

'_Why? Why did he treat me this way?'_ Raphtalia thought to herself, as her new owner beat her up.

Her new owner was a fat man, worse than the other two that she had, the first was someone who only wanted her as a servant. Her second owner wanted her as some kind of sex toy, a person who made her mother as one. Sure she was unsure about her former master, but her mother and his other slaves seemed to like him and the little she saw of him changed her mind, he didn't seem to be as bad as she first thought.

But her new owner was the worse, he kept her in a basement of a large house that she believed he owned, in a town she never heard of. She wasn't alone in the basement, there were other demi-humans there, all chained in cells. Apparently, this man had bought Keel before he'd bought her.

Raphtalia lost track of time, but she knew that every day, whenever he felt like it, he would hang one of the demi-humans from the ceiling in chains and beat them with a whip. He hit them until they were bloody. Because she was new, it would seem that he wanted to break his new slave in, so spent most of his time whipping her.

Whenever Raphtalia tried to stop him, or tried to protest, or tried to say that she would allow him to fuck her if he stopped hitting her, the slave curse on her chest would burn her. In fact, the first few times when she suggested that she would allow him to fuck her, he would whip her even harder. He was disgusted at the idea and he showed it by whipping her harder. The pain from the whip was driving her crazy.

But Raphtalia wasn't about to give up.

She would bear with it, for her father and for everyone in the village that hadn't made it, not only that, but she couldn't let her mother down. Her mother told her that now that she was a slave, she had to do whatever she could to make whoever her master was happy. And she should get a bad master, she should bear with it and do what she had to stay alive.

So she wouldn't give up. But at the same time, she wasn't about to allow herself to show her emotions, nor scream out. She promised herself before now that she wouldn't allow herself to do so and she wasn't going to break that promise.

"Raphtalia…" this came from Keel who coughed a bit.

"It's okay… It's okay. We'll make it back to the village one day." Raphtalia lied to her friend. She knew that wouldn't be possible, but at the same time, she knew she had to lie to make Keel feel better. As when she reunited with him, he was already sick but had gotten worse over time. Even their owner knew he was ill, the man never stopped hitting Keel. So she knew if he was to make it, she had to give him hope and so told him that they would make it back to their village one day.

"Yes… We… We'll… make it…" Keel agreed with his friend, finding it hard to breathe.

Raphtalia had to wonder though, what did this man want from them? Why did he buy them in the first place? Was it so that he could only beat them with a whip for some reason? He wasn't got to use them as servants or some sex toys like her other masters were going to.

"Ha! Why are you still having dreams of a better life?" her owner asked more than once, "You belong to me now. Until I had enough of you or you die, this is going to be your life now."

Slap! He hit her again, and Raphtalia felt blood trickle down her back.

Raphtalia felt tears well up at the pain.

"Yes! Scream from the pain!"

"Ahhh!"

After that point, things got worse. He started to torture her more and more seeing how he wasn't getting what he wanted with her, so he was trying to break her will.

When Raphtalia was finally free, and ragged, but she crawled over the muddy floor to go take care of Keel.

Every day, he brought them an awful stinking bowl of soup. It tasted like mud. But it was the only food that he would give them, that and dried bread.

"Huff… Huff…"

Raphtalia slowly fed it to Keel. That was one more day of life for her.

As Keel got worse, young Raphtalia knew she had to do something, they had to somehow get back to their village if Keel was ever to get better. She knew she promised her mother that she would be a good slave, but this man was a bad master and Keel was getting worse every second and needed help that their owner wouldn't give. So she had to break this promise to keep another promise that she made long ago to her friend that she would keep him and her other friends safe. So she had to do something to keep that promise, even if it meant to break the promise to her mum.

"Hold on… I swear I'll help you." Raphtalia told her friend.

There were latticed iron bars that ran almost to the floor. Raphtalia realized that if she took a rock from the wall and used it to dig out the foundation under the bars, then they would be able to wriggle under them and escape! It just had to work.

"Thank you." Keel thanked his friend.

"Yes! We'll meet everyone again! And you'll get better." Raphtalia informed her friend.

Raphtalia's mother and father had told her to take care of everyone. Whilst some things changed in her life, the one thing she knew was that if she could, she would make that happen.

Raphtalia believed that the other villagers would save them if they knew what was happening to her and Keel.

Sadeena would definitely rally the others to come and save them if she knew where they were. All they needed to do was survive long enough and escape, once they did, send a message to Sadeena let her know what was happening so she could save them.

"You… remember that…day? Raph…ta…lia…" Keel was shivering. He was stretching out his hand to the ceiling. "You remember… that… lord's… flag?"

"Yes… yes!" Raphtalia grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard.

Of course, she remembered it. How could she not The flag had given many of the demi-human much hope at the village. She knew that whilst Keel might not have talked much about it, the raccoon girl knew that it gave him hope too. Something it seemed he needed now.

Raphtalia missed those quiet days… those days when nothing was wrong. But those days were gone. She knew that they might never return, but for the sake of Keel, she would try and return them, if it meant it would help him get better.

Cough! Cough!

Time passed and once again Raphtalia could hear her owner's footsteps coming closer.

"Raphtalia…" Cough!

The horrible time was starting again. Raphtalia had caught Keel's cold. But Raphtalia knew she was going to be fine.

She slid a pile of wet straw over the hole, she was slowly chipping away under the bars.

"…"

Keel wasn't answering her.

"Keel?"

The man opened the door to the cell where he was and touched the dog-boy.

"Guess he's dead. Ugh, what a pain." the bad master said with a disappointed sigh.

He lifted his body roughly by the shoulder and muttered to himself.

Keel hung there, his eyes empty and cold.

"Damn, and it was almost time to return him too." he muttered to himself, it seemed that he only brought them for a short time, or that was what Raphtalia believed from the way he was talking, "This is a breach of contract!"

Then he kicked Keel's body like he was just a toy, well they were like toys to their owner.

Raphtalia didn't know it at the time, but she found out later. But apparently, there was a class of people that entertained themselves by buying demi-humans slaves for a short while and then torturing them. And once they had their fun, they would return them to a Slave Trader.

That's what they were, just slaves sold to satisfy that man's personal whims.

"Heee?!"

What? What? Keel?

No… It couldn't be.

Raphtalia reached out a shaky hand to touch him.

He was so cold, so cold!

Raphtalia couldn't believe it.

No… Keel!

Raphtalia was sad, angry, terrified… hopeless. She had so many different emotions stirring inside of her.

Why? Keel hadn't done anything wrong!

"It's because you won't stop crying at night! He couldn't get any sleep! This is YOUR fault!" Her master blamed her for Keel's death.

"No… Ugh…" Sniff… "Keel…"

The man strung Raphtalia up and started to whip her. He hit her even longer than usual that day. Taking his anger of the loss of Keel out on her.

But Raphtalia kept her eyes locked on Keel the whole time, she couldn't even feel the pain.

"Oh hey, you're always muttering about some village, aren't you?" her master asked her suddenly.

"…"

Raphtalia didn't have to answer him. Everyone was waiting for her. She would escape this awful man's place and return to her village. She knew she was breaking her promise to her mother, but this man wasn't a good master and she had no problem breaking it. She knew that if she didn't, she would be dead too.

"Apparently, that village was destroyed a while ago. Here's proof." her owner told her with a smirk as he held out a crystal ball.

A beam of light came out of the crystal ball and projected an image of the village on the wall. The village was completely destroyed. At first, she wasn't sure which village it was, that was until she saw the flag on the ground, tattered and burnt, and the ground was littered with bones. It was her village's flag. Raphtalia couldn't believe what happened to her home village, the place she was born and raised in.

"Oh yeah, I heard you saying that you were the person who supported everyone in that village." the fat ugly man informed her, "Apparently, everyone left it to rot and ran away."

"Ah…"

The man flashed a smile. He had never seen Raphtalia cry, never seen her blink. As she would always give a brave face, never allowing her master what she truly felt. As she wasn't willing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her broken. So seeing this side of her, he was enjoying this.

"Ug…. Ugh… Wahhhh!"

Something inside Raphtalia snapped.

Raphtalia couldn't do it anymore. Her father had entrusted the village to her, but now there was no one left. The village was destroyed, Raphtalia failed her father somehow.

She had to wonder what she should do now.

There was nothing left for her. She failed everybody.

"Cry! Cry harder!"

The pain was so intense that Raphtalia thought she would go crazy.

The dreams that she had every night were starting to rot her brain.

They were of the last time she saw her father. It got even worse.

Raphtalia thought she was a bad child all because she hadn't saved the village. In her dreams, her father and those who died that day hoped she would never smile again. That she didn't have the right to live, seeing how she failed to protect the village.

They kept whispering: Die… Die…

Raphtalia believed that they were right, she shouldn't ever smile again. She was a bad girl, she couldn't protect her village, nor her friend who died in front of her. She believed that she should never be happy again, nor allowed to smile. Because she broke her promise…

Before she knew it, the man finally sold her.

Either that or the time had run out on his torture game.

At this point she learnt that she was with him for just over a week, it was a lot less longer than she thought she was with him. Raphtalia thought she was with her bad master for a month or longer, not just over a week.

_**o0OoO0o**_

"This is horrible. This is way under what she's worth. Damn it." her former master told the Slave Trader as he counted the money that he got for her.

"C'mon, she's on the verge of death." the Slave Trader informed the bad man, "I can't use her in this condition, so I'm going to have to subtract lost time from the price."

"I understand. Yes." her former master said with a sigh, unhappy about this, but knew that he wouldn't get the full amount for this slave.

The Slave Trader was a short fat man dressed in a nice suit. He was different from the last Slave Trader that brought her, whilst dressed nicer than the others, he was creepy and he frightened the young slave.

"I'm sure you could have treated her a little better…" said the Slave Trader with a sigh. Whilst he didn't care what happened to the slaves once he sold them, he did care that as he brought them, they were sold to him in a good condition. As it would make it much easier for him to resell them. But with how this slave was now, he was unsure if he would be able to sell this slave. All he could do was hope that he could get his money back from this slave. There was already a few that were dying and wouldn't be able to sell.

'_What would my next owner be like?' _Raphtalia thought to herself as she coughed, hoping that whoever it was, they were better than this one was.

"I don't think she will last very long."

Raphtalia's former owner said as he put her in a cage.

'_So… I finally wasn't worth anything to anyone.'_ Raphtalia thought sadly as she heard this. Her father was gone, her mother was a slave and her village was gone. It was like the world was telling her to die.

The thing was that she wanted to die. She was in pain mentally and physically It hurt. She wanted nothing more than to die, to end the pain. She wanted it to be quick.

Now Raphtalia didn't know how much time passed, hours, day, it could have been weeks. All she did was to stare through the bars of her cage. Hoping that she would die. Over time, many people came and went.

And then…

"This is about the cheapest I can offer you." She heard the Slave Trader say at some point when he brought a young man to where she was. "The one on the right has a genetic disease. He's a rabbit. The one in the middle has panic attacks and is a raccoon, and the last one is a mixed-breed lizard man.

"They all have their share of problems."

As the young man was negotiating with the slave trader, the young man suddenly met her gaze for a minute.

His eyes were sharp enough to kill. He looked angry.

Raphtalia couldn't help but gasp, whilst his eyes wandered to the other two slaves. She saw that his eyes were scary.

He was filled with hate, more hate than the man that whipped her. It looked like he hated the whole world. Raphtalia feared that should he buy her, she would probably die in a day or two if he acted like her last master…

"She has panic attacks in the night. She's a lot of trouble…" Raphtalia heard them say, unsure if they were talking to her or not, she wasn't able to do so.

In the end, though, the young man bought Raphtalia. For the fourth time, Raphtalia had the spell recast on her to register as a slave. She hated the spell, as it always hurt her.

Either way, she knew that this man would be her last master one way or another, either he would kill her if he was like her master, or she would die from her cold if not cured. So she knew that if she wanted to survive, she had to use the skills that she gained from her second master to help her to survive. As if she didn't she would be dead soon, so as they left the shop, she didn't realize how much her life would change.

_**To be Continued!**_

_**Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END:**_Here ends the first chapter of my new story, this was something I wanted to do for a while, but until now never got around to write it. I have a few ideas as to what I want to happen, but if you got any ideas as to what you would like to see happen, please let me know. So you know, until things happen to break from the manga/light/web novel fully, I'll be following the plot/story for a bit, altering things here and there to make the story my own.

This will be a darker version of Naofumi, there'll be new shields for him to get, not only that, but he'll have more slaves. I found it strange that as he gained more money, he didn't get more slaves to help him. I can understand only get one at the start, not having much money, but as he gained money, I thought he would have gotten more.

Now because of this, I would like ideas for slaves and new shields, for slaves I'm after names, looks, powers if they got any and backgrounds. I have a few shield ideas which you can see below that I'm planning to use but want your help with.

For those who read the light novel of this story, you notice that I know that most of this chapter is from bonus part it, but most of the readers either watched the anime or/and read the manga and not the light novel. And whilst some of it was highlighted in the anime/manga, there are parts in other chapters that are missed in the anime/manga or altered.

Now I was planning to use the first few chapters of the light/web novel to help with writing my story, as I find it why should I mess around with something that works. But after having Ryujin Maou who wrote Shall I show you a True Shield? read the chapters before I post them, he told me that it needs work, that I'm overworking a bit the introduction of the story, that I am throwing too much into a single plate. That I should ease the readers into the story, then give some action, then I can do the world-building.

Because of this, I'm going to post this chapter now. The plan was to wait until I wrote a few chapters before posting the story, but I would like a co-writer for this story or someone who can help to make this story better. After this, I'll be writing a few chapters before posting again.

Now as I said at the start of the story, I'll be altering the system and planning to add new shields and powers, but I would like your help with that. What would you like to see in the new system and shields, I am after ideas to help me with that and I hope you can help me. Here are three shields I'm planning to use in the story, one is from the story and another is from Shall I show you a True Shield? by Ryujin Maou. I hope that looking at these, you can come up with ideas for new shields I could use for the story and write them out for me to use.

The first shield is from Ryujin, who is okay with me using:

Cartographer's Shield: A brown leather binder like shield, that when open, it is full parchments, each page showing a 3D image of the area of the map that it was fed. The also system shows a more detailed image of an area depending on what part of the map Naofumi focuses on. The binder only shows details on the map, more detail is added when Naofumi visit the areas. The binder leaves a little dotted trail following the locations he visited for the day, resets each morning.

_Requirements:_ Feeds the Shield maps to unlock.

_Equipment Bonus:_ Defense +3

_Special Effect(s):_ Cartography Proficiency; Terrain-Recognition Proficiency, World Map

_Upgrading:_ By adding maps and visiting the areas, new areas open up and extra details are added to existing pages.

The next shield is based off the Slaver Trainer Shield and Demon Trainer Shield

The Slaver Shield: A round shield with a chain motif around the edge of it. In the centre was a symbol of three interlocked circles, with two bat-like wings emerging from them, all inside a larger, horned circle with several arrows pointing outward.

_Requirements:_ Slave Crest Ink.

_Equipment Bonus:_ Slave Modifying Skills.

_Special Effect(s):_ At higher levels, able to turn monsters and demi-humans slaves into slaves.

_Upgrading:_ For the basic levelling up, you'll need to use skill points to do so, over time it becomes stronger and gains new abilities. By adding an eggshell from a monster, it'll allow the shield to be able to control and modify monsters along with humans/demi-humans slaves. The shield gains an eye-like symbol above the horned circle.

This shield idea comes from reading The Shielded Savior by RLTygurr and Shall I show you a True Shield? by Ryujin Maou.

? Shield: A leather vambrace with three metal pleats, the shield's gem on the back of the hand. It had a wallet like sleeve, to place the coins. It looked less like a shield and more like a method of deflecting weapons with one's forearm.

_Requirements:_ Naofumi's wallet gets absorbed into the shield.

_Equipment Bonus:_ Defense +4

_Special Effect(s):_ Coin Storage, at level 1, the shield can hold up to 500 Bronze Coins, 200 Silver Coins and 20 Gold Coins.

_Upgrading:_ By using skill points to level the shield up, Naofumi would be able to carry more.

Now I need help with some shields, coming up with ideas to what the shields should look like, as well as Equipment Bonus and Special Effect(s). Got a few ideas, but I need help in filling in the gaps, most of these I'm thinking that a few would be some sort of binder or book. I got the ideas from here: wow . gamepedia Profession

Bestiary Shield: Need help with the looks, possible binder/book.

_Requirements:_ Unsure, need ideas for this, I hope you can help me.

_Equipment Bonus: _Also combine with Cartographer's Shield, it shows where to find them once they are added to the shield.

_Special Effect(s): _Informs Naofumi about the animals that he faces.

Herbalism Shield: Need help with the looks, binder/book.

_Requirements:_ Unsure, need ideas for this, I hope you can help me.

_Equipment Bonus: _Makes the plants and herbs better than the ones he picks. Also, combine with Cartographer's Shield, it shows where to find them once they are added to the shield.

_Special Effect(s): _Informs Naofumi about the plants and herbs that he finds.

Pickaxe Shield: Two metal crescents on opposite ends of a patterned disc, with a gemstone set in the centre.

_Requirements:_ Absorbing a Pickaxe.

_Equipment Bonus: _Makes the ores that he finds better. Also, combine with Cartographer's Shield, it shows where to find them once they are added to the shield.

_Special Effect(s): _N/A

Now I have the following ideas I want to become shields, but I don't have name ideas for them nor the Requirements, Equipment Bonus, or Special Effect. I hope that you lot could help me out here, as these shields, other than a few others who can be used to counter and fight, will be some of the main ones that he'll use.

Alchemy

Blacksmithing

Cooking Upgrading Idea - Absorbing food to gain recipes

Jewelcrafting

Skinning/Dismantling

Enchanting

Leatherworking

Tailoring

Fishing

These last two I'm not too sure about, as I don't know how to work them into the story… so I would like your thoughts about this, I hope you can help.

Archaeology - although with this one, I might remove, as I got other ideas that'll do the same thing as this.

Inscription - although with this one, I might remove, as I got other ideas that'll do the same thing as this.


	2. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note:**___In this chapter, I'll be writing about each of the four heroes, telling you a bit about their past and how they got to Azeroth. I'm having it so that the heroes come from different timelines, but all around the timeline where they had computers in one form or another. I'm doing this as it was said that those who were summoned to this gaming like world were meant to have an understanding of this world, so that means that they were summoned from a time where gaming was well known. So I decided to use different timelines sort of deal, but they would be close to each other, a few years difference.

Please note that as you read this, this isn't a beta read story, so there WILL be mistakes. I have dyslexia and have some learning difficulties which make it hard for me to see mistakes like grammar and spelling, I spell it as I think it should and rely on spell check to fix the rest of it. If you're interested in Beta Reading this story, please let me know. Please know that this is slow going story, as I have other stories in the works too that I'm working on.

_**Chapter One.**_

_**The Four Cardinal Heroes!**_

_Motoyasu Kitamura, Earth 2402, Year 22nd of February 2010:_

In this chapter, we'll be talking about four people who'll be summoned to another world to become heroes and save the world. The first of the four hero's was Motoyasu Kitamura, a twenty-one-year-old young man, he was tall with long blond hair held back in a ponytail. He was considered by most who meet him as handsome. His parents were rich, being owners a few companies, so he lived off of them most of his life. He went to the best school that his world had thanks to them. His parents were proud that despite his status, he was loyal and kind to others, unlike many other rich kids.

But whilst their son was loyal and kind to his friends, Motoyasu had become a womaniser, using his money to date those he liked. At times more than one at a time. And some women are willing to share his bed with other women because of his money. As long as their son was spending his money on them, they were willing to share him.

The problem was that Motoyasu was incredibly naïve and gullible, believing that the women he dated liked him and not his money. He believed anything that the women he was with said. This made it so that he lost friends and allies that he had, as the women saw them as a threat and so decided to lie about them so Motoyasu would push himself away from his friends and allies.

So to save their son from himself, his parents sent him to the best University in the world, hoping this would make him less naïve and gullible. Hoping that seeing the world would open his eyes and make him see reason and become better for it.

It sort of worked, Motoyasu worked hard and got top grades at his University. And during his free time, he would either be going out or playing online video games. At the moment, he was playing a new and popular online game called Emerald Online. For a bit, it seemed to work, but after a year or so at University he met two women that he really liked, Momiji, a shy and quiet girl, and Ikuyo, a bossy girl who was also one of Motoyasu's classmates, both of whom held feelings for him and ended up confessing their love towards him.

Unlike the other women in his past, they weren't willing to share him and so he cheated on them. But one day, the two found out about it. And so Ikuyo finally demanded Motoyasu to choose one or the other, Momiji chose to run away from the situation and derail the topic.

But after there, Ikuyo ran out of patience and let her temper get the better of her. As one day during a meal at Motoyasu's place, she grabbed a knife from the kitchen and pointed it towards Momiji, proclaiming if she was out of the picture, Motoyasu would've been able to finally date her.

Motoyasu was shocked by Ikuyo's sudden violent nature, seeing that he was both friends with them and cared for them both, he ran over to stand between the two, hoping to stop the fight before it got worse. But it didn't end up the way that he wanted, instead of stopping it, he ended up getting stabbed on the side of the chest not by Ikuyo, but by Momiji, who also had a knife in her hands.

Motoyasu couldn't believe it, Momiji, who was usually shy and quiet, started displaying yandere-like traits and ended up stabbing him. She said tearfully admitted that she feared that he was secretly visiting other girls besides herself and Ikuyo. She had developed the idea of dying with Motoyasu and being with him in the afterlife. Ikuyo, in a fit of jealousy, stabbed Motoyasu as well, declaring that if anyone was going to be with him in the afterlife, it was going be her. Motoyasu was repeatedly stabbed by both Momiji and Ikuyo, the young man died from profuse blood loss. He couldn't believe that this was how he died.

'_What's going on?'_ Motoyasu thought to himself, remembering what happened to him, as his eyes were adjusting to the sudden bright light as he could see again, _'Those crazy bitches killed me.'_

As he could see again, he saw that he was in a throne-like room, as he looked down, he saw that he was standing on some sort of altar with a geometric pattern that had been painted in some sort of fluorescent material. As he looked around he saw that within the room, there was a smaller altar with candles, herbs and other stuff on it. In front of the altar, there was a group of people in robes praying. The place reminded him of the inside of a temple from one of the games that he played in the past, one where demons were summoned to fight for the heroes.

'_Is this heaven?' _thought Motoyasu, wondering if this was the way how the dead came to heaven. It was then where he realized that he was holding a spear, _'Where did this spear come from?'_

Before he could ask about this, three other people appeared within a few seconds of each other, each holding something, a bow, a sword and strangely enough a shield. Each of them was just as confused as he was, he had to wonder, _'Did they die too?'_

"Where are we?" asked the one with the sword.

"Fantastic, the summoning was a success!" one of the people in the robes called gracefully, he had his hood down, he had blonde brown hair, brown eyes and he was wearing a basic gold circlet with a red ruby in the centre of it, "Ohh, brave heroes, please won't you save our world from pure evil."

"WHHHAT!?" Motoyasu and the other three asked at once.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Itsuki Kawasumi, Earth 3492, Year 12th of April 1998:_

Now our second hero is Itsuki Kawasumi, a seventeen-year-old male with naturally curly blonde hair that flops, giving him a charming appearance. Whilst his family was well off and he went to a decent high school, in fact, he was in his final year, Itsuki had a rough life. His mother had an unknown illness that keeps her in bed often, whilst his father was a drunk and abusive, not only that, he was often bullied at school too.

So when he wasn't at school or doing homework, he was at home in his room playing on his console playing the popular console game, Dimension Wave. It was a game where he could escape reality, the problems in his life, where he was special and superior. He would play the part of a hero of justice, being like robin hood, being a stealthy character doing missions to kill corrupt nobles and save villages. In the games, he could be strong and powerful and be the hero that he couldn't be in real life, where he could help and protect others.

Now life went on as normal for Itsuki until one day on the way home, he was crossing the road when out of nowhere a speeding truck hit him. His last thought as the world around him went black was this,_ 'I can't believe it, I was killed like this, by a hit and run. I died without being a hero at least once, I hope that in my next life I can become a hero of justice.'_

Although his world went black for a few moments, he knew it could have been weeks, months, years or longer before he knew what happened next. As when he was able to open his eyes again, he found himself in what he believed was a summoning room from one of the games that he played before.

Whilst the place was dark, he believed that the walls and the pillars were made from some sort of marble, the same with the altar he seemed to be standing on. He believed that it was a summoning room, even more, when he saw people in robes chanting in front of an altar with stuff, who he believed were mages of some sort. At first, he thought he was either having strange visions due to him dying or this was a heaven of some kind. But seeing that he still felt some pain from being killed, he believed he wasn't in heaven, as if he was, he didn't believe he would feel pain. It was the same for the vision, he didn't believe that if he was having one, he would feel the pain.

That left with one other option, however strange it might sound to him, seeing that he didn't think magic like was real, he believed that he was summoned to wherever he was. So it meant that either he was summoned just before he died, or he was summoned sometime after he died for some reason. Maybe, just maybe, if he was summoned here, then they would need a hero, something he couldn't become in his own world. Although, even if they needed a hero, he wasn't just going to do it for free, as even heroes need some sort of reward so that they can get by.

Then in a matter of seconds of all this happening, a few things first he had a bow, his favourite tool he loved to use in games, the other is that he was next to a tall blonde male with long blond hair, which was held back in a ponytail. He was holding a spear. Just before he could ask who he was and what was happening, two other people suddenly appeared, a person holding a sword the other oddly enough holding a shield. _'Were these guys also summoned here for the same reason as me?' _thought Itsuki, _'And if so, what was this reason, is it to become some sort of heroes for this place?'_

Before he could ask questions, male with the sword asked, "Where are we?"

"Fantastic, the summoning was a success!" one of the people in the robes called gracefully, he had his hood down, he had blonde brown hair, brown eyes and he was wearing a basic gold circlet with a red ruby in the centre of it. Itsuki believed that with the way he looked, and the only one with his hood down, he was some sort of High Mage, "Ohh brave heroes, please won't you save our world from pure evil."

"WHHHAT!?" Itsuki and the other three asked at once. Sure Itsuki might have thought that he was summoned here for some reason, even to be a hero, but to save the world? He wasn't that skilled in much and he didn't think he was that strong to save the world, so why would these people summon someone like him to save the world. Wouldn't they summon someone stronger, someone, better for the job?

_**o0OoO0o **_

_Ren Amaki, Earth 2301, Year 30th of June 2022:_

Now our second hero is Ren Amaki, a sixteen-year-old male with long dark blue hair, or that's what everyone apart for his parents and a few trustworthy people believed he was. The truth was that he was a female by the name of Renka Amaki, where she was living in a world where men dominated the world and females were nothing more second class. Where that if they weren't house-wives as many men would like the female to be, they were either nurses, secretaries, some sort of assistant or things along those lines. In this world, females won't be allowed to become successful and have high paying jobs.

This wasn't something her parents wanted though, they wanted her to have a better life, with a high paying job and a better life than most women normally had. That meant that they had to have her daughter pretend that she a male, only allowing those she trusted to know about who she really was. Because of this and not knowing who to trust, she became a loner so that it would be easier to hide who she was.

The only time she could be herself was in a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online, otherwise known as VRMMO, where she could make her character as a male or female, which of course she made her character as a female. The game was Brave Star Online, it was popular in her world with guilds, monsters and outer space themes.

Whilst she was part of a guild in her game, Renka normally hunts monsters and do missions alone, the only time she would work with others is when the prey he seeks to kill is too strong for him to hunt alone or when the mission was too difficult. His guild believes that the comrades who are weaker than the other members should work to individually or work with other weaker players to increase their powers to catch up to the stronger ones.

Now like the other two, she too died young - but unlike the other two, her death was more heroic. You see at the time there was a serial killer going around, everyone in her town knew about it and because of the killer, there was a curfew to make sure people were safe at night. Whilst it was a few hours before curfew, she decided she would take her best female friend home, one of the few people she felt close to. Her friend didn't know Renka's secret, as Renka feared what her friend might think, should she learn the truth.

Either way, as Renka was taking her friend home the two had to take an alleyway to get to Renka's friend's home. But as they walked down the alleyway though, they were stopped by none other than the killer that people were worried about. Long story short, the killer tried to kill Renka's friend, but before he could though, Renka stepped in as she picked up a pipe and knocked the killer out before he could kill her friend. But the problem was that before she knocked the man out, the man stabbed her a few times in her sides.

Her friend called the police and the ambulance. The problem was that Renka was bleeding to death. Whilst the police were able to come fast and arrested the killed and tried to save Renka, the ambulance was yet to come. As the police were trying to save Renka, they found out that he was a she. Finding this out, there were whispers by the police of having her arrested for pretending to be a male, not only that, they talked about arresting her family too should they know about this.

Renka remembered that as she feared what would happen to her family, she heard her friend whispered to her that she knew about her secret for a while. As she saw her friend naked one day at the school locker rooms, but she didn't say anything as she understood why Renka did it and not say a word about it. She also whispered that she hoped that should Renka be reborn, she was born in a time and place where she didn't have to hide who she was. As Renka's world blackened, she smiled, happy to know that her best friend knew the truth and was fine with it. Renka didn't think she could have rested in death if her friend didn't know and that she hated her for it.

Renka didn't know how long the world around her was dark, but the next thing she knew was that she was in some sort of chamber room, with two other people there. She was the same age as she was killed and wearing the same clothes. Like the two before her, she saw the type of room she was in and the mages in the room. Pinching herself, she realized that she wasn't dead as she thought she was, so she couldn't be in heaven.

Knowing that she was alive somehow, she thought about her friend and parents,_ 'I hope they are fine.' _Renka thought to herself, _'I hope they didn't get arrested because of me.'_

Just as she thought about them, she noticed that like the other two people in the room, she too had a weapon. But instead of a bow or a spear, she had a sword. Not only that but at the bottom right of her vision, she saw a floating icon. It reminded her of the icon from the VRMMO games._ 'Have I entered a gaming world?'_ Renka thought in shock. She knew it was meant to be impossible, but why else would the icon be there for?

Before she could think more or do anything about this though, another person came appeared out of nowhere. It was another male, but unlike her and the other two weapon holders, this one had a shield.

Seeing the confusion about what was going on and where they were, she decided to be the one to ask. "Where are we?"

"Fantastic, the summoning was a success!" one of the people in the robes called gracefully. Like Itsuki, Renka believed that he was some sort of High Mage or High Priest, "Ohh brave heroes, please won't you save our world from pure evil."

"WHHHAT!?" Renka and the other three asked at once. Renka couldn't believe what she heard, whoever these people were, they seemed to be the one who brought them here and wanted to save their world. Whilst she was grateful for them to bring her back from the dead, she wasn't willing to save some strangers for nothing. One thing she knew from her world, never do anything for anything, as they could lead you to problems later on.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Naofumi Iwatani, Earth 309, Year 5th of January 2019 - Japan, Odaiba, Morning:_

Now onto our last hero, our protagonist to this story, Naofumi Iwatani. He was a year-old male with unruly black hair and green eyes. At this moment in time, he was sleeping, having a strange dream.

_He was standing on the coast of some unknown land, looking out to the sea. The coast itself was peaceful, there were hills around him, seagulls flying over him and he was looking at the different kinds of islet out in the sea. Some were big enough that a few people could live on them. _

_Whilst he didn't recognise the land he was at, it felt familiar somehow, like he has been there before, even though he __**knew **__that he hadn't. In this dream, he was wearing some kind of outfit, something that fit in the mediaeval times. He also had a strange small shield on his right arm. _

_Naofumi didn't know why, but the dream version of himself at peace, as he had been through hush times and for the first time in ages he was at peace. As he was looking out in the sea, an orange ball rolled out to him, hitting the rock he was sitting on. He gave a small smile when he saw the ball, Naofumi somehow recognised it from somewhere. _

_So standing up he picked up the ball and waited. Whilst he wasn't sure who he was waiting for, there was a part of him that knew who he was waiting for. _

_A few moments later, a girl came into view, but she was unlike any girl he had ever seen before. She reminded him of a Demi-Human that he read in manga once, if he had to guess she was some kind of raccoon-dog Demi-Human. _

_She was wearing a red garment, underneath it was a long-sleeved leather protective, she also wore a black robe with bronze-like trimmings. The most noticeable thing was that she had iron cuffs on each wrist, along with an iron collar and some sort of red marking on her chest. _

_The problem was that whilst he knew she had light brown hair and had ears on the top of her head, Naofumi was unable to make out any facial features. If he had to guess by her size and how old her skin seemed to be, he had to guess she was no older than ten to fourteen years old. _

_As she faceless girl came up to him, she said happily, "Master, are you ready to go?"_

_"I am £& #&£ #." said Naofumi. _

_The thing was, as he said her name, a huge seagull appeared and made a powerful squawk so that he couldn't hear the name he was saying. At the same time, the squawk woke him up in the real world. _

Naofumi groaned as he awoke, "Damn, that dream again, I've yet to see the girl's face and learn her name."

This wasn't the first time that he had this dream, in fact, in the last few months he had this dream several times along with several other similar dreams with different people in it. Whilst one could say that they were different dreams, the one thing that connected them all was the shield that he wore in each of these dreams. The dreams were vague though, he only remembered small parts of them. Although he was thankful the parts he could remember were what the people looked like, while most of the looks, for whatever the reason, he could never seem to be able to see the faces of the people in his dreams.

Either way though, he was thankful that he was able to remember the rest of their looks, as he would draw them down before the dream leaves him like most of them do. Although this raccoon-dog Demi-Human seemed to stick in his mind. He sensed that she was trustworthy, but yet, she wears a collar and calls him a master. Part of him was worried about it, as he didn't see himself liking lolis**. **Sure, this was only a dream and most likely meant nothing, but it got Naofumi thinking, why did he dream about having a young girl as a slave instead of a full-grown female.

Now for the people from his dream that he remembers, he draws them down in his notebook. It takes a few dreams to get the full details of them, but he was able to draw them well, even if he can get their faces.

Now whilst he was a college sophomore studying economics, his main passion is drawing and trying to create his own manga. You see he was an otaku, thanks to some of his friends introduced him to manga, video games, (although he did play video games before, it wasn't as much as he did now seeing how his friends set him up with better games than he used to play,) anime and otaku culture, where he realized how much he enjoyed it and decided could never go back to caring about something as boring as studying.

Before he found his interest in the otaku culture, he was in the top ten of his year in studies. His parents wanted him to learn something useful just in case the art career didn't pan out. Whilst he knew that artists would always be needed, he knew that there would be someone better or his style of art might become out of date or he just couldn't find work, so they believe that he should have something to fall back on. Which is why Naofumi decided to learn about economics.

So getting out of bed, he went to disk and opened his art book and looked through the pages until he found the page he was looking for. This page was of what he has done with the raccoon-dog girl so far. He also placed a few notes on the page, feelings that he had about her that he had in his dream. He did this for all the people that he drew from his dreams. Like for this young female Demi-Human, he had a few pictures of her from young to late teens, her notes say loyal, slave, his sword, love interest. Naofumi just hoped that the love interest was for the older version of her.

He had other pictures like this too, one was a red-headed woman. The side notes that he had for her was princess, bitch, whore and she was manipulative and shouldn't be trusted. Another was a long-haired male with a spear, the side notes for were naïve and gullible along with the princess's bitch. The other one was of an old man, his notes for the man trash king, daughter of the princess along with manipulative and shouldn't be trusted.

The reason that he drew these people from his dream was that he was trying to create his own manga. You see his favourite theme for manga, video games and anime were Isekai, where a normal person or people from Earth gets transported to, reborn, or trapped in a parallel universe, usually a fantasy world. He likes it when they gain powers and becomes a hero or if the plot was good, a villain.

His favourite Isekai anime was Log Horizon, it was about where thirty thousand Japanese gamers were transported to the game world known as Elder Tale. The story went on about Shiroe and his group of friends getting along in the new world with the others that were teleported to it. The story went on with them trying to recreate things from their world, the problem was that this new world had low technology, so that they had to use old fashion technology to build a new home for them. The interesting thing that they built was a steam engine to power things and such. Naofumi liked the idea of this, so he decided he would create his own version of the story. So in his free time, he went to his local library to research stuff like building an old fashioned steam engine, cranes and other items and things that he thought might be useful and wrote notes to make them, like medicine and such.

Now as he was drawing the raccoon-dog girl, he heard a knock on his bedroom door. It was his little brother, Kaito. Kaito had blonde hair and was sixteen years old. As Kaito entered his brother's room and seeing that he was drawing and seeing what it was, the young man said, "So you have a dream about her again?" than seeing that his brother was adding a little detail other than the face, he said, "So you still haven't seen her face?"

Naofumi smiled somewhat warmly to his brother, until about a year ago, Kaito didn't have a good time of it all. The reason, him, his oldest brother had made his little brother's life hard. When their parents realized that Naofumi cared more about his new otaku lifestyle than about college and the future anymore, they started off with cutting his allowance seeing he was a lost cause. If he didn't care about his future, then they wouldn't pay for his new lifestyle.

Naofumi had to admit that he was shocked when they did this, as before he would be able to get whatever he wanted, he was somewhat spoilt. Now whilst he understood somewhat where they were coming from, it didn't mean he agreed with them about not caring about his future because he did. But it wasn't the same future that they wanted for him, instead of spending all his time studying and getting a high-end job, he wanted to take it easy and relax. As for a job, he realized he wanted to create his own manga. That didn't mean he would leave college, just that he wasn't going to force himself to worry and burn himself out with all that work and studying.

Because he lost his allowance, he had to get a part-time job, to pay for the things he needed, that meant cutting down on his porn, manga and anime and stop playing video games altogether to work.

But back to Kaito, because their parents saw Naofumi as a disappointment, they decided to focus their efforts on Kaito instead, forcing him into some big-name cram school to 'ensure his future.' And to make sure that Kaito didn't out like his older brother, their parents limited what Kaito was allowed to do and not spoil him either.

Unfortunately, over time, not having an outlet to deal with things, Kaito cracked from the pressure of living up to their expectations and preparing for entrance exams, he ended up dying his hair blonde and talking like a punk. It was a really dark time for their family.

Realizing that he was the way that his brother turned out to become foul-tempered, Naofumi decided it was down to him to help his little brother. He did so by telling his brother to play a certain mega-popular dating sim that he knew of. Kaito was, of course, sceptical about this at first, but when he realized that when a relaxation specialist like Naofumi makes a recommendation, well, even Kaito couldn't help but have his interest piqued.

To make a long story short, the world gained another otaku. Since then, Kaito's room has been totally transformed, filled to the brim with merch from the dating sim that his brother recommended. On top of that, with his stress gone he managed to pass all his exams and get into a super prestigious high school. Naofumi would be lying if he said it wasn't just a little bit irritating.

Now thanks to helping his younger brother out, their parents lightened up on Naofumi, which allowed Naofumi to finally enjoy a carefree college life. No more of his parents getting on his back to do well with his studies and getting a good job. But it also meant that to his parents, he was the black sheep of the Iwatani family. They were also willing to give him his monthly allowance back to him, in fact, they were willing to give him an extra ten thousand yen.

Naofumi didn't mind being called a black sheep of the family if it meant that it would get his parents off his back. He was even happy to have the extra money too, as it meant he could cut his hours at work. Naofumi preferred to have a relaxed life anyway, where he could do as little as possible.

But there was a catch if he wanted the extra money, his parents wanted him to do one active activity if he wanted to have his monthly allowance of twenty thousand yen. As if he didn't do so, he would have to have a monthly allowance of ten thousand yen. As they didn't want him to become a shut-in, or that he became lazy and all he did was play games, read manga or watch anime.

With his tuition, and now once again his food expenses, being covered by his parents, Naofumi knew that if he wanted to keep the way he wanted, he had to agree with this deal. As if he didn't, he would have to take up a part-time work during the school year instead of summer and winter Comiket, along with the various local festivals, where he would get another fifty thousand yen.

So Naofumi resentfully agreed to this deal and done one active activity, this activity was in martial arts. In this way, not only would it get his parents off his back, but he would be able to defend himself should he ever need to.

It had been a year since this deal was made since then things were slowly getting back to normal for Naofumi. Whilst he didn't have to worry about money as much, he couldn't spend his allowance on all the things that he wanted as the cost of things went up.

Whilst his parents paid for some of his martial arts classes, he had to pay for the rest. He had to admit, whilst he wasn't as skilled as he hoped after a year there, he was happy enough with what he was able to do, with how much time he spent going there.

Not only that, now that he had time to create his own manga, he had to pay to get the paper, pencils and the rest of the things he needed out of his own pocket.

For the rest of his allowance, he converted it directly into his light novels, anime, manga and porn. But because of the cost of things, he had to buy them second hand be from second-hand shops or from his friends. Also, he brought them to help with creating his manga. Sure some would wonder how porn would help him other than giving him a hard-on, but that wasn't the case, okay it was part of the reason, but the main reason was to help him draw the naked body. He wanted to put some adult themes into his manga, but he had problems drawing the naked body, which is why he brought the porn magazines.

He also began to read random books from used bookstores and libraries to help with ideas, not only that but to help him with research for some ideas.

He knew that he wanted to do an Isekai manga where his character is sent to a game-like world, where they level up, gain skills, do quests and fight monsters. The problem was he was coming up with a good plot. He had a few ideas, like the main character being a Tech Student, who like those from Log Horizon, use his knowledge to build things in the new world that they haven't seen before. Naofumi heard about Steampunk recently, so he thought it would be interesting to create steam weapons in the gaming world. So he was having his hero learning about steam before he was transported to the other world. This meant to have an understanding of what he was going to write about, Naofumi did some research in steam weaponry.

He found out that in theory, it would be possible to create steam weapons, but the problem was that they didn't have a metal to prevent overheating. This was something simple to deal with in manga, so he started off designing steam like weapons and vehicles.

As he was drawing the images for the steam items, he was trying to figure out the plot and the characters for his manga. Then about five months ago, he began to have dreams of people and places he had never seen before, but whilst the dreams were vague, they were familiar somehow even if the things won't be possible. When he awoke from these dreams, he was able to remember some of what he saw, but the content of the dream he was unable to remember.

But still, he drew what he could remember and decided to use the pictures for his manga he was writing, the only problem he had was that he was unable to see the faces of the people in his dreams, so he couldn't do them. That's where his brother came in, he offered to draw the faces and see he was unable to do so at the moment, he agreed. But he kept two of the characters to himself the raccoon-dog girl and a young blonde girl who was able to transform into a bird.

The others he didn't care if their faces didn't match what Naofumi felt they should look like, but these two, he just knew he had to be perfect. So he wanted to keep them until he was able to see their faces within dreams. The only time he would draw them any other way was when he had to send the manga to print.

Only his brother knew about his dreams and that he was using them for his first manga. In fact, his younger brother is the reason that he comes home at the weekends every so often instead of staying at college during the semester. As his brother offered to help with the manga, something he wanted help with. So when he asked about the raccoon girl, he replied with a sigh, "Not yet, it is a pain though. It feels like she's important somehow."

"Are you saw you don't want me to draw her and the bird girl's faces?" offered Kaito, "Maybe then it would allow you the time to come up with a plot for your manga."

"I would like your help, but at the moment I just can't allow myself to allow anyone else apart from me to work on them." Naofumi informed his brother, "They feel too important to me, that I have to draw them."

"Are you sure you don't have a loli fetish, with are guarded you are with them?" the younger brother joked.

"Of course, I don't." Naofumi denied, although of late, he often questioned himself about this himself, "It's just that they are going to be the main companions to the hero, so I want to be the one to finish not someone else. I'll give it another month or two and if I can't draw their faces, I'll give it a break and work on the plot."

Kaito believed he could understand where his brother was coming from, if he was him, he wouldn't like someone else to work on his main characters either. Just as he was looking at his brother's work, he noticed the steam weaponry that his brother was working on, so he asked, "What are those ideas that you're working on?"

"Some weapons and vehicles ideas I'm thinking of using." explained Naofumi, as he sorted them out for his brother to look at, "As you know my main character is going to be a Tech Student and he would be transported to a gaming like world, where you fight monsters, do quests and level up. Now the world won't have the same level of technology as we do, in fact, I was thinking they would have a mediaeval level of technology and use magic for things like boats and such. So when my character comes to this world, he would use his knowledge with the magic tech to create these items and vehicle."

"I have to say, it does look like a good idea," Kaito admits, "a fantasy Steampunk world feel to the story. But I do have a comment about weapons though, and that's it looks like a nightmare to load ammo into it."

Naofumi could see his point on this, the weapons didn't have a popular magazine for the ammo, so he said, "I agree, but they are just basic ideas at the moment, I'm planning to work on them later."

"Fair enough, but I do have another comment," the blonde told his brother, "the other problem you have to deal with, is the tedious weight and maintenance issues. You would need some kind of steam engine backpack for it. And on top of that, you must work around the tedious weight and maintenance issues. How would you sort that out in your story, from your images, the weapons looks too complicated to clean and maintain, thus harder to get familiar with for the common soldier because of having too many parts? In fact, I would say that these weapons are specialist weapons, so unless you can work around these problems, they should be used by a select few instead of common soldiers."

"Hmm, I thought about this myself and whilst I couldn't figure out how to deal with the weight problem, I thought I could use the gaming system for the maintenance issues." explained Naofumi to his brother, "Whilst it has been a while since I played video games, I do remember that there equipment with auto repair and auto clean, which should deal with the maintenance issues."

In fact, he was considering getting back into playing RPG games once again to get ideas for his manga, to help with working out the systems. The main problem was time, with collage, part-time work, working on his manga and martial arts, so he wouldn't have to level up fully as he would like. You see, he was the kind of guy that values breadth over depth. Rather than racing for the level cap like most people, Naofumi preferred to spend all his playtime leisurely making money. In fact, at one point, he had a character selling rare items in the in-game marketplace, he would have to check on that character at some point.

"Whilst a cheap way around it, for a game world setting, that would make sense." Kaito told his brother, seeing the sense in his decision. It was a cheap workaround but at the same time though, in the gaming world, this sort of things do happen. So with a smile, he asked his brother, "So what do you have planned for the day?"

"While going to my martial arts class and afterwards I'm planning to go to the library to finish my assessments for college and do some more research for steam and maybe look up a new way for weapons." Naofumi informed his brother.

"I didn't realize you were still doing assessments," admitted Kaito, "I thought you more or less give up on college."

"No, I haven't given it up, instead I give up putting so much effort in doing all the work," Naofumi told his brother, "I'm not that stupid and think that my manga will be a hit. I would need a backup plan just in case I need it. So I'm working enough to get passing marks."

"I see, that makes sense." Kaito said with a smile, happy to see that his brother had a backup plan should his manga doesn't work out. Then he felt uneasy, he wanted to ask his brother something, if he could put an idea that he had in his manga.

Seeing his unease, Naofumi was worried about his brother, so he asked, "What's wrong Kaito?"

"Well I would like a favour Naofumi," Kaito told his older brother, "I would like it if you would be willing to add a few ideas of my own into your manga."

"Seeing how you are helping me with it, it would be wrong of me to say no outright Naofumi to his brother, "Before I decide, do you have anything on paper to show me, if not could you? As I would like to see how things would look like before I decide to add it to my manga."

"Give me a minute." Kaito said with a smile as he left the room, happy that his brother would hear his idea out. He returned a few moments later with a roll of paper in his hand, where he handed them to his brother one at a time, as he gave the first one, he explained, "These ideas are based around pneumatic, the one you're holding has a rifle."

As Naofumi took the roll, he opened to reveal a few pages, the first few were of an old 1886 order rifle, but where the stock was an air tank were the pumped air would be stored. Where the ammo would have been was a box-like item, where from Kaito's pictures show would be harpoon-like ammo instead of normal bullets. And underneath the box was a handle where you would pump to add air into the air tank. It looked very decent, Naofumi knew that his brother could draw, seeing he was able to draw faces, but he didn't know he could draw weapons too.

"I'll admit I tried to do handguns with an air tank too, but they came out too bulky for my liking." explained Kaito, "Instead I designed these." With that, the younger brother handed Naofumi another roll. The next roll revealed an old-style858 Revolver. Now where the hammer would have been, there was a tube that leads to a tank which could be found on the outer thighs of the legs, which you hand to pump to add pressure to shoot the gun. Instead of bullets, it fired pellets.

Naofumi had to admit that these weapons were better maintenance wise, there were fewer parts to clean too. Sure he was thinking of using the auto clean and repair idea, and he loved the design for the steam weapons, but this was more effective. So far, it would be ideal for him to add to his story.

The last roll that his brother gave him was some sort of mobility gear, it had some kind of gas cylinder which would be found in the centre of the upper back of a person. The drawing's notes said this was the power source for this outfit. On each side of the gas cylinder, was two winches, these stored thin cables that had hooks. From his brother's drawings, the hooks are fired from two guns. Once fired, they would be pulled towards where they aimed as the winches pulled them along. The hook would easily be pulled out of whatever it was stuck into and back into the gun to be fired again. These guns fire single-use cartridge, consisting of a barrel, and preloaded projectile and powder charge. The ammo for them was attached to the outer thighs of the legs. But the problem was that you could only have six cartridges on each leg, so you only had twelve shots. These were all attached to a leather harness.

Once Naofumi finished looking over the pictures, he told his brother, "Okay, I have to admit I love the designs for the guns and once I have done some research on pneumatic weapons and how they work, I'm willing to add them. But I'm unsure about your mobility gear."

"Why not?" asked Kaito, whilst he was happy that his brother was willing to use his first two ideas, he had to wonder why he wasn't willing to use his last one.

"It seems a bit too complicated," explained the older brother, "whilst I don't know about the plot yet, the design looks like once it was made, it would take months or even years to train to use. Not saying I won't use it, but until I figure out the plot, I don't think I'll be using your last idea."

Kaito had to admit he could see his brother's point of view on this, as he thought about it unless he knew the plot, he wouldn't know if his brother could use the idea or not. He was glad that his brother was willing to think about it, and if he was able to use the idea he would, but if he couldn't, he wouldn't.

Before he could say more, he saw his brother check the time as he said, "Sorry Kaito, but I have to go, got my martial arts class in an hour. I need to get a bus. We'll talk more about this once I get back from the library."

"That's fine Naofumi, I'll talk to you later." Kaito said with a smile as he left his brother's room.

Once his brother left the room, Naofumi got changed and got his things together for his martial arts class, as well his bag that he uses for his manga research. Once he did so, he left for his martial arts class.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Naofumi Iwatani, Earth 309, Year 5th of January 2019 - Japan, Odaiba, Minato Library, Morning:_

It was two hours later and Naofumi found himself in the local library, his martial arts class went well enough, in fact, his sensei told him that he could get his Green Tip for his yellow belt soon. It was something Naofumi was happy about.

As he was in the library, he rented out any books that had information about pneumatic, so he could learn more about it and maybe add his brother's idea into his manga. Naofumi liked to get as much information that he could before adding anything to his manga so that he could put some of the knowledge into the manga to explain how things worked. As if he decided to have one of the characters from the gaming world how the weapons that the main character made worked, he would have at least some information to tell them.

Once he got the books that he could, he decided to find any books that caught his interest and read a few of them before heading home. He loved books where the hero saves the kingdom from some evil and ends up saving a damsel in distress. He would love to read the sex scenes if the books had any.

Naofumi went to the section dedicated to fantasy novels and scanned the books to see if there was something he might like to read. To Naofumi, he believed that fantasy was as old as humanity itself, so he loved to see if there was anything of interest in the old books if he could find any. To Naofumi, the bible is basically a fantasy novel, when you get right down to it.

Sure the people might be real, but some of the things that it wrote in it, he found hard to believe. Like the story of Noah's Ark, for example, there was the story of a great flood and Noah had to build a huge ark for two of every animal to live in for forty days and nights. He had a few problems with the story, the first was how could a small group of people take care of so many animals? The second was to how could the animals live in a small space for such a long time? Third, was where did they keep all the food and other things they needed?

For the animals, the people and the things that they would need for a long journey, they would need a damn huge boat, a boat that was too much for a small group to handle alone. So this is why Naofumi had such a hard time believing in the bible. But he did love the stories in it though.

As Naofumi was looking through the shelves, he picked up a worn-out book that fell off the shelf for some reason. _'Maybe the last person that looked at it had been careless when they put it back?'_ Naofumi thought.

Naofumi he picked up the book, he saw it was red with worn markings on it, and the writing and markings were in gold. As he looked at the title, Naofumi found the book was called _The Weapons of the Four Saints_. This piqued Naofumi's interest, so he took the book to one of the tables there and seat down as he began to read it.

Naofumi began to flip through the pages, apparently, it was one of those books that start off by going over the setting in excruciating detail.

The young man had to admit that there was a lot to take in, the plot was one of a prophecy that foretold the end of the world. According to the prophecy, the world would be destroyed by something called the Wave of Disasters. In order to avert this calamity, the people of this world had to summon Heroes from another world to save them. The Heroes would have to fight each wave until they defeat the final wave.

As he read through the pages, Naofumi muttered to himself, "…It's a pretty cliched plot, but I guess I can't expect too much from an antique. It must have seemed pretty fresh back in the day."

As he continued to read, he learned that the Four Heroes that were summoned wielded four weapons: sword, spear, bow, and surprisingly enough a shield.

"Haha, what? A shield isn't even a weapon, it's armour!" Naofumi muttered in confusion, he couldn't believe it, what could a shield do against a wave of monsters other than protecting himself and the others. Sure protection was all good and all, but what if the Shield Hero was overcome by monsters? How would he be able to defend himself if the other Heroes were dealing with other monsters, the Shield Hero would more than likely end up dead. He laughed wryly at this but kept on reading to see how the Shield Hero would hold out. In the end, the Heroes set out on a journey to gain strength and polish their skills in order to fight the Wave of Calamity.

As Naofumi read the book, Naofumi felt a wave of sleepiness washing over him as he got somewhat bored about it. Seriously, would it have killed the writers to add a cute girl or two to keep the reader's interest? I mean, technically there was a princess, but Naofumi felt that she was a total bitch. The way she toadied up to all of the Heroes was totally disgusting. Like, just pick a guy and stick with him, right?

Although the Shield Hero was somewhat weak, Naofumi had to admit that all in all, the four main characters seemed pretty damn cool, he believed that all four were the main protagonists of the book. So he suspected that each of the characters would have their own chapters now and then. The dashing Sword Hero, and the thoughtful Spear Hero. The Robin Hood Bow Hero, working to topple a corrupt kingdom. But when the story turned its attention toward the Shield Hero… the pages were blank. As he flipped through the pages, he saw that everything after the page about the Shield Hero was completely blank. No matter many how many times he looked, there was nothing there.

"What the hell is this?" Naofumi said aloud, confused at what he was seeing, why would the pages be blank for. As he was thinking about this, his vision started to grow dim and his consciousness began to fade as the book began to glow and the pages began to flap fast. Never in his wildest dreams, would he ever imagined that when he came to, he would find himself in another world.

_**o0OoO0o**_

Naofumi remembered that when he came to, he heard the sound of murmuring voices around him.

When he opened his eyes, for some reason, a bunch of guys in robes were staring right at him.

"What the…?"

Naofumi shifted his attention toward this new voice and realized he was surrounded by three guys who were apparently in the same situation as him. Naofumi tilted his head in confusion. '_What the hell is going on? Wasn't I just in a library?'_

No matter which direction he looked, Naofumi saw nothing massive stone walls loomed over him. Or maybe they were brick? He couldn't tell. At any rate, whilst he didn't know how he got there in the first place, he knew that he never been in a building like this before in his entire life. Beneath him was an altar of some kind, with a strange pattern drawn on it in glowing paint.

It looked like a magic circle one would see in an anime or something. As he looked around, he saw that within the room, there was a smaller altar with candles, herbs and other stuff on it. In front of the altar, there was a group of people in robes praying. But as he looked around the place, trying to figure out where he was, he saw that within the room, there was a smaller altar with candles, herbs and other stuff on it. In front of the altar, there was a group of people in robes praying.

He also felt something strangely light, and almost felt like it was clinging to his left arm. _'Where did I get this shield? I didn't have it when I lost _consciousness_ and why can't I drop it?_' Naofumi thought as he saw the shield and tried to drop the damn thing, but no matter what he did, he couldn't remove it, all he could do was move it up and down his arm.

The problem was that he felt disoriented and had problems remembering a few things, as all this, the chamber, the people with the spear, bow and sword, he even recognised the shield, all of it felt somewhat familiar, like from a dream.

"Where are we?" asked the person with the sword.

"Fantastic, the summoning was a success!" one of the people in the robes called gracefully, he had his hood down, he had blonde brown hair, brown eyes and he was wearing a basic gold circlet with a red ruby in the centre of it, "Ohh brave heroes, please won't you save our world from pure evil."

"WHHHAT!?" Naofumi and the other three asked at once.

_**To be Continued!**_

_**Author's Note:**_ Here ends chapter one of this new story, I thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story so far, one way or another, please let me know what you think. For now, things will more or less follow the storyline as seen in anime, manga and novel. There'll be new shields, as well as dark themes, but the real change won't happen until after the first wave where Trash and Bitch try to take Raphtalia, that's when things will get darker or I hope they well - lol. So if you got any ideas for plot, OCs, new shields and such, I would like to hear them.

You might be wondering about the dreams of that Naofumi had, well in the anime the show started off with him dreaming about himself and Raphtalia. So I decided to use that and expand on the idea of what you have seen in this story.

I know that I give a lot of info dump in this chapter, but I did say something along the lines of this in the last chapter and ask for someone to help me with this. But I had no offers, so I'm posting this as is, as I don't know how to change it to make it better.


	3. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note:**___As I said in the warnings at the start of the story, I'll be altering the system and a few other things within this story. In this chapter, you'll be seeing a few of those changes in action. So you know, I'll be adding skills and attributes points in this story, some of you might not like the idea and I'll say this, I understand. But, I want to add them to give Naofumi something to work towards and make him think where to place these points, not only that, but I wanted to make the world more like a game. I hope you enjoy the changes that I'll be adding to the story.

There's a slight crossover with Sword Arts Online in this chapter.

_**Chapter Two.**_

_**The Royal Summons!**_

_Azeroth 20, Kingdom of Melromarc, Castle Town, Castle, Year 5th of January 740:_

Before Naofumi could ask what the earth what this priest/mage was talking about, or why he felt disoriented and had problems remembering things, the guy with the sword called out, "So, are you guys going to tell us where we are?"

"Oh, honourable Heroes! Please, save our world!" asked a man in a black robe and gold trimmings, he had four other people behind him. Naofumi thought the man in front of them was some kind of High Priest or Mage, and those behind him were his followers.

"…Huh?"

They all replied in unison.

"What do you mean by that?" asked the bow guy.

"You must have many questions," one of the men in robes told them, "But time is short. You are the chosen Heroes, told in prophecy, summoned here by an ancient ritual to save our world Wave of Calamity."

"Summoned…?"

"Prophecy…?"

"Wave of Calamity…?"

Naofumi was confused, whilst he agreed with these three men, he felt that he knew this somehow, it felt strangely familiar somehow, like he only recently learned this somewhere. It was at the back of his mind, trying to get to the front. So deciding to say something he asked, "Whilst I agree with the three, I would also like to know something. Why is it that I feel disoriented? And why do I have problems recalling things?"

"Ah Sir Hero, that would be one of the side-effects of summoning you here." explained the Head Mage, "In the scrolls that tell us how to summon you, Heroes, it says that for the first few days or so you might feel disoriented, nauseous, and many other things, even have problems with memories and such. But it'll clear up within a few days."

Now that the mage mention it, the other three did feel a bit disoriented and nauseous, but they put it down to being reborn/summoned to this world. As they had no idea how long they were died for, for all they knew, they could have been dead for hundreds of years, before being summoned here. They had no idea what effects were for being brought back to life.

"Either way honourable Heroes, at the moment, this world is teetering on the edge of destruction. We pray for you, please, lend us your power!" the Head Mage begged the four Summoned Heroes.

"Man, so much talking."

"This sucks."

"Right?"

"Can we go now?"

The other three people summoned spoke up, interrupting Naofumi's efforts to smoothly progress the conversation. And not only that, to answer in such away.

Listening to people when they were talking to you was just basic manners!

As if they could hear Naofumi's silent rebuke, all three of them turned to face him.

…For some reason, they were smirking.

It almost seemed like they were enjoying themselves. Which they were, they were alive and kicking, something they thought would be impossible. They were going to get every advantage that they could out of this, not only that but if they were summoned moments before their deaths and were somehow healed, they might be able to be sent home alive and carry on with their old lives. If not, they would take whatever advantage they could to make their new lives her better than their old one.

But to Naofumi, if this was actually real and they had really been transported to another world… well, Naofumi would be lying if he said that it didn't feel like a dream come true. But that was all the more reason to pay attention, right?

"Don't you guys have any shame at all, suddenly dragging us here without our permission?" The guy with the sword - he looked to be in his late teens - brandished his weapon.

"Even if you send us home when the job is done, that's basically just using us as slave labour, you know?" the guy with the bow voiced his agreement with a glare.

"You get where we're coming from, right? Keep in mind that depending on your answer we might have to become your enemies." the swordsman told them coolly.

Naofumi could sympathize with what they were saying. It was their right to confirm their situation, and whether or not they would be rewarded for their efforts. Still, to raise their weapons like that… these guys had some serious balls. Somehow Naofumi was starting to feel outclassed. He began to wonder if his relaxed attitude was going to give trouble.

"P-Please, at least have an audience with the king before you do anything rash. You can discuss the details of your compensation there."

The Head Mage informed him, as two of the other mages opened a heavy-looking door, as the Head Mage gestured them inside.

"Well, I guess that's that."

"Seems like it."

"Though, talk is talk, even if it's a king."

With that Naofumi and the other three guys headed towards the exit. He followed behind them, so as not to be left behind. Compared to the darkroom that they started out in, the stone hallway was bright and lively.

…The air here smelled sweet. Naofumi wasn't really sure how else to describe it.

On top of that, the scenery they could see through the row of windows lining the walls was positively breathtaking. Clear blue sky, far as the eye could see, hung over a townscape straight from medieval Europe. Naofumi spotted some strange creatures, creatures that he thought were only from dreams, anime and games. However, they didn't have long to marvel at the spectacle before we were ushered through the hall into a large audience chamber.

"Oh? So these are the Cardinal Heroes?" A self-important old man asked as he looked down at them with an appraising gaze.

Naofumi couldn't put his finger on it, but something about him made the young black haired man uneasy. If he had to guess… it was his eyes. Whilst the man seemed to look at the other three with respect and interest. The old man gave him a look of disgust and loathing as if Naofumi was scum or something like he killed the old man's family or something. There's no way Naofumi could ever like somebody that looked at other people like that.

As Naofumi looked away from the man, he realized that they won't alone. There were many noble men and women, what shocked Naofumi was that when they looked at him they give him a hint of distrust and hatred, although when they saw that he saw this they quickly hide it as if nothing happened. The young man had no idea why this was, he had just been summoned to this world and so he had no idea why they would hate him already.

"I am the king of this country, Aultcray Melromarc the 32nd. Raise your heads, Heroes." The king greeted them, his face looked like he had been through great hardship. That he lost hope in what was going on in his life. His tone was dry and rather focused, not like the mage from earlier.

Naofumi resisted the urge to point out that none of their heads was lowered. He wasn't an expert on the courtly manner, but at the very least Naofumi knew better than to talk back to a king.

Naofumi's first impression of this man was not the most pleasant. The king kept looking at Naofumi, as if he was lower than him and that the other three were just above him. Whilst Naofumi could understand that the king might look down at them for being basically commoners, the looks that he was giving him was more intense, he wasn't afraid of showing his feelings for Naofumi, although the other three didn't seem to notice it. More likely they were caught in the moment, so wasn't bothered about the other heroes with them. Naofumi had no idea why the king would be like this towards him, they had never met before today.

"Now, I shall explain the current situation. This country - nay, the very world - is on the path to ruin."

The king went on to tell them that they were summoned because of a great calamity that happened about a month ago, where monsters appeared from the sky and killed many people. They were reminded of a prophecy, about this, how neither their normal soldiers nor normal adventurers would be unable to stop the disaster that came to their land.

The story was of an existence of a prophecy, it spoke of wave after wave of calamity which would beset their lands, where should it not be stopped, would take over the world, one land at a time. The prophecy called the waves the Waves of Calamity, where their only hope was from four legendary heroes who were summoned from other worlds to save their world

At first, they weren't sure if the prophecy was true or not. However, they truly believed that prophecy had finally come when the ancient Dragon's Hourglass that stood still for the last two centuries since the last Waves of Calamity begun to run once more.

According to legend, the Dragon's Hourglass was supposed to serve as a warning system for the Wave of Calamity. At first, the people had written it off as mere superstition. However, disaster struck the instant the final grain of sand fell, just as the legend said.

A dimensional fissure appeared over Melromarc, and a vast horde of monsters spilled out from within. Though the country's knights and adventurers just barely managed to subdue most of them, the next wave was expected to be even stronger. There was no way they would be able to stop the calamity a second time. And so, the leaders of the country decided to enact the ancient summoning of the Legendary Heroes, in hopes that they might be saved.

On an unrelated note, the heroes' ability to communicate with the people of this world was apparently a boon granted by the legendary weapons they all held.

"Uh-huh. So, you expect us to just work for free, then?"

"That sure is convenient for you."

"…It really is selfish, you know. Dragging us into a problem that doesn't have anything to do with us."

Naofumi had to admit, judging from the way they were smiling earlier, they obviously weren't really upset. So why were they speaking so brazenly? It was probably time for me to speak up and smooth things over.

"That's right! You can't expect us to work for free, right?" the one with spear told the king, "Say, if we were to fight in these waves you speak off, what guarantee do we have that you won't simply send us off with our hands empty after we beat it? Nobody would take a risk like that unrewarded."

Naofumi, although a bit startled by the sudden aggression of his fellow heroes, he had to agree to their line of thought. Being an economics student, one thing that had been engraved in his mind was that, "Nothing is free, everything has a price." While his kinder and trusting heart told him to help regardless, his mind called out details of his trip here so far.

Shiny armour, fancifully dressed individuals, pompous attitude. These details didn't point to a distressed nation being attacked.

He shifted into a more defensive position, holding his shield in front of his vitals. The precaution was never enough. And as much as he hated to admit it, there was something in the pit of his stomach to be careful of this king. That he should not be trusted fully.

"Urk…"

The king shot a glance toward one of his retainers.

"Let me introduce myself, I am Hikaru, the royal Minister." explained the Minister, "Now you should not worry Sir Heroes, you'll be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams. It would bring utmost shame upon our nation to not reward their saviours. Of course, you'll receive rewards, glory and fame. We ask that you trust in our word and fight the waves." The king nodded in agreement as many of the nobles around them also nodding and lightly clapping to the Minister's words.

Naofumi couldn't help but notice the many pieces of jewellery adorning the king's hands as he continued speaking, explaining the reason behind the hero summoning.

The four of them clenched their fists excitedly. All right! That was more like it.

"Besides that, we could also prepare discretionary funds to support you on your journey." explained the king, "It's a small price to pay to ensure your cooperation in saving our world."

"Oh? Well, as long as you make it a promise…"

"Don't think that means you own us, though. We're just cooperating for as long as you stay on our good side."

"…That's right."

"Yeah."

'_Geez, again with the condescending attitude.' _Naofumi thought to himself, wondering if these three so-called heroes were fools or just delusional. Making an enemy of this country was the absolute worst thing they could do right now. If that happened, the little progress they were able to make in this negotiation so far would totally fall apart!

"Now then, Heroes. Tell me your names." the king ordered them.

That's when Naofumi realized why most of this felt so familiar, as some of his memories returned to him. All of this was just like the book that he had been reading earlier. Sword, spear, bow, and shield. It couldn't be a coincidence that the weapons were the same. As unbelievable as it seemed, could they have somehow ended up in the world of that book…?

While he was wrapped up in my own thoughts, the others began their introductions.

"My name is Ren Amaki, age sixteen. I'm a high-schooler."

He stood roughly 165cm, with delicate, sincere features. In fact, Naofumi felt that he was so pretty you might even mistake him for a girl if he dressed up in drag. With his long-slitted eyes and light skin, he was the very image of a cool, slender swordsman. He had sky blue eyes that people dream about having, he had black hair that flew down to his shoulder blades. He had white complexion and red lips. The innocently bewitching gaze from his eyes, framed by long eyelashes, along with the skin and lips, if he didn't know better, Naofumi would have believed Ren was a female.

"I'll go next, then. The name's Motoyasu Kitamura, college student, twenty-one."

Naofumi believed that he was an easygoing older-brother type.

Though his features were more traditional, he was easily on par with Ren in the looks department. If you told Naofumi he'd dated two girls at the same time before, it wouldn't surprise him at all. Even his hair was chic, tied back into a long ponytail. It was a feminine cut, but somehow he made it work. All in all, he seemed like a helpful and reliable guy.

"Oh, me now? My name is Itsuki Kawasumi. I'm a seventeen-year-old high-school student."

A mature youth with the air of a pianist.

There was a fragility about him, yet at the same time an unshakable strength. Honestly, it was hard to get a read on him. He had nice hair, though: wavy, with a bit of a perm. He seemed nice enough, for the quiet, little-brother type.

Naofumi couldn't help but be a little thankful everybody was Japanese - not that he had anything against foreigners, mind you, it just would have been a little shocking to see one here. Although, part of him wondered how he was able to understand everyone seeing how this was a different world. Was it possible that these weapons, or in his case armour, allowed them to understand each other?

'…_Crap, was it my turn already?'_ thought Naofumi.

"Oh, sorry. Guess I'm last. The name's Naofumi -."

"Hmm. Lord Ren, Lord Motoyasu, and Lord Itsuki is that right?" the king asked kindly as if Naofumi didn't say anything.

Naofumi raised his hand, making the king look his way.

"Forgive me, eh, your majesty, but you seemed to have skipped me." Naofumi informed the king firm but politely, not wanting to get on the king's bad side more than he already seemed to be. By the look on Ren's face, _he _gained some respect from the young man for sticking up for himself. Although up to 'till now, the king seemed to relax as he spoke, losing the look of contempt that he had for Naofumi.

A quick exchange of eyes happened. Naofumi second-guessed himself, but he swore he saw the contempt inside Aultocray's eyes return as the king looked over him. Naofumi felt a chill run down his spine when the king did so. Naofumi had no idea why the king gave him such a look, he only got to this world and so didn't have time to do something that would piss the king off.

"Oh, my. My sincerest apologies… Shield Hero." But the young man knew he wasn't.

This old guy was unbelievable. It was already glaringly apparent to Naofumi that he was the odd man out here, but he didn't have to rub it in like that!

"Right, I'm Iwatani Naofumi, Twenty-years-old, I'm also a college student." It seemed that only Naofumi found this situation awkward, seeing as the other three were waiting for him to finish his piece.

"Now, if everybody could please confirm their status?" the king asked them all.

"Huh?" three of the four heroes asked in shock.

Status? What the heck was a status!?

"Umm… how do we do that, exactly?" Itsuki timidly asked the king for help. But, at least he seemed to have some inkling of what they were talking about. Naofumi was completely lost!

"What, you guys didn't notice it the moment you got here?" Ren seemed genuinely shocked that they could be so ignorant. The smug, know-it-all look on his face was totally irritating.

"There's a sort of icon in your peripheral vision, right?"

Eh? He was right. Naofumi found it strange that he hadn't noticed it before, but there really was a strange mark floating there. Maybe, unless you knew what was going on or someone pointing it, certain things can't be done or seen. That lead to the question of how was Ren able to see it first and not the others.

"Just focus your consciousness on that."

Focus his consciousness? Naofumi still didn't really get it, but he tried it out anyway. What harm would it do, the worst thing that could happen is that nothing happened.

…Ping! The icon suddenly expanded into a browser-like window that filled his entire field of vision and having a quick look he saw this.

_Name:_

Naofumi Iwatani

_Class:_

Legendary Shield Hero

_Legendary Equipment:_

Small Shield (Legendary Weapon)

_Legendary Weapon Skill(s):_

_Absorption:_

A small crystal on the shield that absorbs plants, animal parts and other items into the shield, to unlock new shields and abilities for the Shield Hero.

_Magic Resistance - Low:_

This skill allows the person to defend against low to medium non-elemental magic attacks, such as sleep and fear.

_Physical Endurance - Low:_

This skill allows the person not to feel physical pain from low to medium level monsters.

There were other icons that he could look at, but Naofumi didn't have the time to look at it fully. But he had to admit the skills that he got so far seem decent enough. Either way, this wasn't what interested our young hero, no, it was this 'status bar' in front of him that interested him. It was just like something out of one of the games that he played back home!

"I'm only level one? What a pain in the ass." Ren said with a sigh.

"Yeah, can we really fight like this?" asked Motoyasu, worried that he couldn't fight as well as he wanted.

"Uh… more importantly, what the heck is this?" asked Itsuki.

"Do you not have status magic in your world, Heroes? Here, it is something that anybody can use." one of the men in robes informed them all.

"No kidding?" Naofumi asked in shock.

Apparently the ability to quantify and observe their actual physical parameters was considered normal in this world.

"Anyway, what should we do from here on out?" asked Motoyasu, "Being such a low level is making me uneasy."

"We would like to ask of you four that you strengthen your Legendary Weapons before the next Wave of Calamity." explained Minister Hikaru, "The fate of our world rides on your shoulders, oh noble heroes."

"Strengthen our weapons?" Naofumi asked in shock, "They're legendary, right? Shouldn't they be strong from the start?"

"I am simply relating the contents of the legend." the Minister told the Shield Hero, "It is written that _the summoned Heroes will grow and strengthen their legendary weapons._"

"Again with the legends. So can we at least use something else until these things are strong enough to be useful?" Motoyasu spoke up, twirling his spear absentmindedly. He had a point. After all, Naofumi's so-called 'weapon' wasn't even a weapon, it was a shield. Obviously he would need something else to survive.

"We can worry about that later. For now, we should just focus on getting stronger as they asked." this came from Ran.

Being summoned as a Hero in another world…

Naofumi was overflowing with things he wanted to try. I mean, come on. There was no way that any young man wouldn't be fired up in a situation like this! The others must have felt the same way, Naofumi was sure of it.

"Well then, should the four of us party up?"

"Wait just a moment, Heroes."

"Hmm?"

The Minister stopped them as they were preparing to head out on their journey.

"The four of you are to gather companions individually, then set off on your own separate journeys." the Minister informed the four Cardinal Heroes.

"Oh? And why is that?" asked Ren.

"It's quite simple. According to legend, the weapons you carry naturally repel each other. Should you operate together as a group, you will do nothing but impede each other's growth." The Minister informed them.

"I'm not sure I get it, but basically you're saying we can't get strong unless we work alone?" Naofumi asked confused and a bit worried about this. As if he wasn't able to use a weapon or find companions to help him fight, he would have problems levelling up.

Part of him thought that he was making this up so that each hero would have to work with those of this world instead of with each other. However, that thought was put to rest when some sort of help message suddenly appeared over his shield.

_**Caution!**_

_Working together with your fellow legendary weapon holders will be detrimental to your progress._

_Please try to operate separately as much as possible. Otherwise, EXP gain shall be halted._

"Looks like it's the real deal…" Naofumi told his fellow heroes.

What was with this game-like explanation, though? It was like they had really fallen into the world of a game. At any rate, it was nice to know that the legendary weapons came with a user's manual. Naofumi would have to make time to read through it all later.

"So then, we need to gather companions, I guess?" Ran asked/stated.

"On the contrary, we will gather companions for you - the best of the best, have no worries." This came from the king himself, "However, the day grows late. For now, rest yourselves and gather your strength. Your journey begins tomorrow."

"Thank you."

"Yeah, thanks."

Leaving behind words of gratitude, we relocated to the guest quarters prepared for us by the king.

_**o0OoO0o**_

Once they arrived in the guest quarters, the four heroes sprawled out on the extravagant bedrooms that had been prepared for them, before they gathered in the common room to study the Help Menu for our weapons. At some point, the sun completely disappeared below the horizon, but Naofumi was so absorbed in reading that he didn't even notice.

On the plus side though, Naofumi was able to find out a lot of useful information. Apparently, the legendary weapons were almighty tools that didn't require maintenance. On top of that, if their owner diligently levelled up and fused materials into it, new forms would unlock, which were recorded in something called the _'Weapon Book.'_ That sounded interesting, so Naofumi decided to try pulling it up.

SWOOSH!

The screen that appeared was filled with icons that extended well beyond its borders, all marked as "Locked".

'_Amazing…'_

It looked like he could develop his legendary weapon through various branching paths. It was just like a skill tree from many of the games that he used to playback in his world when he used to play them most of the time. And in order to learn skills, he needed to unlock the power sleeping in the shield?

"Man, this is just like a game, don't you think?" Naofumi spoke up suddenly, but the others weren't really paying attention. They were probably looking through the Help Menu too.

"What are you talking about? This isn't just 'like' a game, it is a game. I'm pretty sure I've played it before." Motoyasu boasted.

"I agree, although the setting is rather cliché, but I guess it has its charm." Itsuki let out as he looked at his bow.

"Right? The plot is somewhat similar to Emerald Online." Motoyasu was also eyeing his spear, doing a few basic thrusts to test the weapon.

"What are you talking about? This is just like a VRMMO I used to play." Ren also did some experimental swings with _his _sword.

Naofumi was feeling a bit lost here, seeing as he never heard about such things. He was an otaku alright, but he was pretty sure something like VRMMO was only in experimental stages. At the moment, from what he could remember was that VR games only recently came out in their world, likes of Doom 3 VR and Fallout 4.

But even then there are a few problems, mainly there's nobody, or if there is some sort of body, it's normally only the hands and _**maybe **_the wrists, other than that nobody at all. Sure he knew that because the developers didn't have the game technology, but he knew because of this, a VRMMO would be impossible outside of manga, anime and a plot within a video game.

"You all must be confusing this with something totally different. This is one of those A.I manipulated games that came out recently on the consoles, Odin Online and Fantasy Moon Online." Itsuki, Naofumi's last light, was also speaking nonsense.

He released a sigh, not one of these games he knew of, he was beginning to wonder if they cam from the same world. Sure that should be impossible, but at the same time, so was summoning someone from another world. So if they could summon people from a different world, why not from alternate worlds?

"Naofumi!" Motoyasu and Itsuki came to Naofumi, the spear holding blonde calling out to him. "Tell him that I am right! You also played Emerald Online, right? It's super-famous" The duo came close to stepping inside his personal space, ushering him to agree with one of them.

"Look, I have no idea of what you guys are talking about. Whilst I've been out of gaming for a few years with college and work, none of my friends either mentioned anything about Emerald Online, no VRMMO, and no Odin Online and Fantasy Moon Online, or anything like that, you know? And my friends are a big fan of gaming, so they would have told me if any of those games were out." The trio of Ren, Itsuki and Motoyasu looked at him weirdly. "I guess that the closest thing you would find related to that would be WoW or some recently created MOBA right? In the first place, VR only recently came out in the last few years with a few games, nowhere near ready for MMO, as they have a lot of work to sort out before they are ready to do that." Ren raised _his _brows at Naofumi's words.

Itsuki raised his hand.

"Umm… everybody, what game world do you think this is, exactly?"

"Bravestar Online."

"Emerald Online."

"I didn't even know there was a game like this."

Whilst Naofumi certainly thought this world seemed game-ish, it didn't remind him of any game in particular.

"I see. By the way, to me, it looks like the world of Dimension Wave, a console game."

For some reason, none of them had ever heard of any of the others' games.

"Wait, wait, we can sort this out." Motoyasu touched his hand to his forehead and tried to get a grip on the situation.

"Ren, according to you this is a VRMMO, right?"

"That's right." Ren admitted.

"And Itsuki and Naofumi, you understand what he means by that?" asked Motoyasu, trying to figure out what is going on.

"It's a term I've seen in science fiction games before, yeah." Itsuki told them.

"I've read a few light novels and manga about them. I even heard about a few games that have a plot around it," admitted Naofumi.

"Okay, same here." admitted Motoyasu, before asked Ren, "Then, Ren. This 'Bravestar Online' you mentioned, it's a VRMMO?"

"Yeah, I used to play it all the time." Ren told the older man, "The way this world works really resembles the systems it uses."

Based on what Ren was saying, _he _came from a world where the technology to dive into virtual realities was commonplace. Something that they were only driving into in Naofumi's world.

"So, do any of the games we've mentioned exist in your world's past?" asked Itsuki.

Ren shook his head. "I consider myself something of a gaming history buff, and I've never heard of any of them. Are you sure they're famous?"

Motoyasu and Naofumi both nodded. If he really was an expert on online games, it would be strange for him to have such a glaring gap in his knowledge. And while it was possible that the problem was on our side, you'd think at least one of them would be able to name a game that was actually popular.

"Then, how about a question based on common knowledge? Like, the name of the current Prime Minister, for example." This came from Naofumi, he wanted to see if his suspicions were right about them all coming from a different Earth.

"Ah!"

Everybody nodded in agreement.

"Okay, all together now…"

*gulp*

"Yuta Masato."

"Yawara Koutarou."

"Kodaka Enichi."

"Ichifuji Shigeno."

"…"

Nothing. Naofumi didn't even recognize any of the names from history class, this just began to confirm his suspicions.

After that, they compared various topics ranging from popular net slang to famous websites, but the result was always the same. They couldn't seem to agree on anything, not only that, but they all came from a different year.

"It looks like not only are we all from totally different Japans but different years." Naofumi said thoughtfully, hardly able to believe it.

"Yeah. No matter how you look at it there's no way we all came from the same world." said Motoyasu.

"Still, fantasy worlds are one thing, but who'd have thought that alternate Japans exist too?" Ren asked thought.

"Well, there's still the possibility that we came from the same world but different eras, but with so many inconsistencies it's seeming less and less likely." admitted Itsuki.

Being gathered here together like this was strange. Really strange. That said, the fact that they were all otaku probably didn't mean anything.

"Based on the way things have been going, I'd wager all of us ended up here under different circumstances, too."

"That seems likely. I can't say I'm really interested in small talk, but I suppose we should at least consolidate our information." Ren told them.

Ren started telling his story. From the way he was talking, he clearly wanted us to think he was cool.

"I was walking my best friend home because of a curfew, seeing how there was a murderer back in my Japan." Ren began _his _story, "But on the way to my friend's home, we had to go down an alleyway to get there. Sadly our luck wasn't with us as we came face to face with the killer. He tried to kill my friend, but somehow though, I was able to knock the killer out, but not before he stabbed me a few times. He must have hit something fighter, as I bleed out and died."

…He kept absentmindedly rubbing his side as he told his story.

Naofumi had to admit that his death, if he did die, was a horrible one, dying to save his friend. If he was going to die, he would at least hope he died by saving someone he cared about. Although Naofumi had to admit that he felt that the young man in front of him was hiding something. But he knew that it wasn't his place to say anything.

"Or I thought that I died," Ren informed them, unsure about it _himself_, "as the next thing I knew, I was here."

"So you saved your best friend, huh? That's pretty awesome." Naofumi told him, trying to be nice.

He laughed off Naofumi's compliment with an affected air of coolness. But, that was fine.

"I'll go next." Motoyasu lightheartedly gestured toward himself. "Before I came here, I had a lot of girlfriends, you know?"

"I figured as much," Naofumi admitted to the Spear Hero. His 'reliable older brother' schtick must have been like catnip to girls.

"And so, because of that…"

"…you were two or three-timing them and got stabbed, right?"

Ren's question was obviously sarcastic. However, Motoyasu just blinked his eyes in surprise and nodded, "Something like that." Motoyasu told them, as he shuddered at the memory of what happened, as he muttered to himself mainly, "…Women are scary."

"Goddamn!" Naofumi muttered to himself; while part of him was jealous that Motoyasu was such a ladies man and able to get so many women, he was also angry at him too, so he flipped the other hero the bird behind his back. Whilst he was all for an open relationship, he wasn't all too happen about cheating on your partner. He also felt that there was something more to it, sure two-timing for bad enough if the women didn't know about it, but to be killed over it. No, Naofumi suspected that there was more to it. Unless the woman was a crazy bitch who hated two timers.

…But wait, wasn't dying the reason he was summoned here in the first place? Naofumi didn't have time to ponder it, though, since Itsuki was already talking, hand clasped to his chest.

"As for me, I was crossing the street on the way home from cram school, when a dump truck came barreling around the curve at full speed. After that…"

"…"

In all likelihood, he had been run over by the truck. What a terrible way to die. Out of the three other heroes, Naofumi felt sorry for Itsuki the most, to be killed like that for no reason didn't seem right. But as Naofumi thought about the story's told so far about how they got here, he realized his story was a little out of place here.

"Uh… do I absolutely, positively have to tell mine?" Naofumi asked uneasily, not wanting to be the odd person out about this.

"Of course! Everybody else did, after all." Motoyasu told as the others agreed with him.

"Oh. Right. Well, if you insist… but I warn you it's nothing like your stories though. In fact, it is very boring." Naofumi warned them. "You see, I was at the library when a strange book dropped from one of the bookshelves there, it was a book that I had never seen before. Naturally, I picked it up and started reading it, and before I knew it I was here."

"…"

Naofumi saw the icy stares that they give him, he didn't understand it. Did he need to have a tragic history to be accepted or something? The others started whispering to each other just out of earshot.

"But… that guy… shield…"

"Of course… right?"

"Yeah…"

Naofumi couldn't quite make out everything, but he knew that for whatever reason, they were looking down on him. Naofumi knew he needed to change the topic, and quick.

"So, everybody! It seems like you're already familiar with this world's rul- I mean, systems?"

"Yup."

"That's right."

"More or less."

Damn, Naofumi was the only novice here. He never knew that taking time out of gaming to work and college would one day bite him in the ass like this. Although, who would have thought that he would one day be transported to another world. This totally sucked.

"I-I see. Then, do you think you could give me some pointers?" asked Naofumi, "Since I've been out of gaming for a while, I don't know if my world has games with systems like this."

"Why don't you play games?" asked Motoyasu, who with Itsuki were smiling at him, whilst Ren was glaring at the Shield Hero for some reason.

"Well in my world, apart from going to college, I also work part-time to get the things that I like." explained Naofumi, "Things like anime, manga and porn." The last part Naofumi said with a red face, admitting to the last part, but part of him didn't want them to look down on him. "My life had a few problems and I was only getting things into order and I was planning to get back into gaming but got sucked into this world before I could."

Motoyasu and Itsuki give nods of understanding and the glare Ren was giving him lessened a bit.

"Don't worry, your good buddy Motoyasu is here to tell you how it is." Motoyasu walked up to Naofumi and draped his arm across his shoulders. But for some reason, Naofumi felt something was off the way Motoyasu was looking at him, it was really suspicious.

"Don't take this personal, but in Emerald Online, the Shielder - surprise, surprise - use shields as its main weapon." explained Motoyasu.

"Okay." Naofumi at this, wanting to learn more about the shield abilities.

"But the problem is that Shield Bearers were bottom tier trash!" Motoyasu informed the young man with a smirk, "Sure their initial defence is high and all, which is nice, but as you progress through the game it starts to get overwhelmed by the ridiculous amount of damage the enemies can dish out. From what I can remember, there were no high-levelled shield users. Hell, a shield isn't even a weapon, it's more like a protective gear." Itsuki nodded along with Motoyasu's words. Ren was merely letting the situation play out, content on staying neutral. But _he _did see some advantages of having a Shielder in a party though.

Naofumi felt a little pissed off, but he could understand the blonde. When you heard weapon, you didn't exactly picture 'Shield' in your mind; that, however, didn't mean he was taking this sort of talk towards him without firing some heat back.

"Wasn't it ever fixed in an update?" asked Naofumi, hoping that this was the case so that there was some hope at this. Surely they must have balanced it at some point. As he didn't like that Motoyasu was basically calling Naofumi a born loser!

"Nah, it was terrible and barely anybody played it, so they never bothered." Motoyasu informed the twenty-year-old, "Last I heard, they had decided to just get rid of it altogether."

"Wasn't there any class advancement!?"

"Sure, but the whole line sucked."

"What about class switching?"

"Sorry, but it wasn't that kind of game."

Geez, if all of this was true, Naofumi had been stuck with a tough class. He looked down at his shield gloomily. Did it really hold such a dismal future?

"Wait, what about you guys?" asked Naofumi, as he turned to Ren and Itsuki in desperation, "There were no such games in my world." But his hope was killed as they quickly averted their eyes.

"Sorry…"

"It's the same in my world, too…"

'_Eh!? So I really got screwed over?' _thought Naofumi, out of all the items he could get, he would have gotten the worst one of them all.

But then he remembered something, this was real and not like a game that these guys believe it is and so like real life, as long as you know how to use it, anything can become a weapon. So he said to them, "You're talking about it like this is a game, but this is real life now, in which case anything can be a weapon, you know! I mean, even a spear or a sword can be used as a shield if the need arises."

The three others paused, Motoyasu even assuming a pensive pose. Truly enough, you could block and defend with their weapons, but that just proved their practicality. Come on, for god's sake, it was _a shield_. What could it do? It's not like it can attack and defeat monsters. That's why they created weapons for.

"Besides that, these are Legendary Weapons right! So the possibilities are endless. Maybe I can find a shield that has a high attack." Naofumi said, standing up and going out to the veranda. He leaned on the marble railing, watching the city. New possibilities, wonders and adventures were just waiting for him out there, he just needed to grab them and work hard. Sure, it seemed like he had stumbled upon a setback, but maybe he could equip a sword and focus on developing his attack.

Motoyasu and Itsuki believed that Naofumi deluding himself, thinking that there was no way for him to get stronger, that they would be and always be stronger than someone who is a Shield User. They believed that there was very little you can do with a shield, that Naofumi wouldn't be able to get stronger than them.

Ren had other thoughts, _he _had to admire the young man, he was just like _him_, people believing that he was weak and powerless for one reason or another.The young man, like _him_, was planning to fight against his fate in this new world, to become better than whatever else thought of him. Would Naofumi be able to do what _he _had been trying to do all of _his _life and become someone better than what others thought of him? _He _didn't know, with all his talk, Ren wasn't sure one way or another and until_ he _saw otherwise, _he _would side with Motoyasu and Itsuki.

So whilst the Shield Hero was outside, they started talking about amongst themselves, thinking that this was just a game.

"So what's the terrain like do you think?" asked Motoyasu.

"From the little I have seen, the names seem to be different, but otherwise it's essentially the same." Ren told the other two Heroes "Which means there's a good chance the monster distributions are the same, too."

"Since each weapon's hunting ground is slightly different, we should avoid going to the same areas." Itsuki told them.

"Yeah, that's probably the most efficient way to do it." admitted Motoyasu.

Their eyes were sparkling. Naofumi could tell they were thinking something along the lines of, _'Wow, we really hit the jackpot as far as abilities go, didn't we?'_

That's right. They were strong and Naofumi wasn't. But Naofumi wasn't too bothered about this, as there were still plenty of roads available to him. If he was weak, then he just needed to rely on companions. Even somebody like Naofumi could get stronger by fighting in a party.

"Hehe… what am I worrying about? It's not every day you get a chance to see another world! I'm sure things will work out somehow." Naofumi told himself, he knew he couldn't let everybody's looks of pity get to him. He just needed to trade out this shield for a proper weapon, and he would be good to go.

"All right! I can do this!" Naofumi pumped himself up.

Than realizing something, Naofumi asked the other three heroes as he came in, "Listen, guys, how are you going to handle all this? You all believe this is some sort of game world, where game rules apply. But what if that isn't the case."

"What do you mean?" asked Ren.

"What if, whilst the world has powers like gaming the 'status bar' and abilities from the game, what if everything else is like our world." Naofumi tried to explain his thoughts, "People live and die and our actions have consequences."

Naofumi saw that the other heroes had a thoughtful look at this, wondering if what he said had some merit to it. But that line of thought was forgotten when there was a knock on the door as someone called out, "Honorable Heroes, we have prepared a meal for you."

Oh? Apparently it was time to eat dinner.

They opened the door, and an attendant escorted them to the knight corps' dining hall. It was like a scene from a fantasy movie. Rows of tables were packed with food, like an all-you-can-eat buffet.

"Everybody, please help yourselves to whatever you like."

"Seriously? We have to eat at the same time as the knights?" Ren grumbled under his breath.

Naofumi still couldn't believe that the Sword Hero was complaining when the Knights seemed to have gone through the trouble of preparing them a feast. What a jackass.

"No." The attendant shook his head.

"After you've had your fill, the food here will be used at your introduction."

Hmm? As Naofumi took a closer look at the dining hall, that's when he realized that the boisterous throngs of people filling the room were all cooks. _'So this was what they called 'preferential treatment,' huh?'_ Naofumi thought to himself the night before, the plan was that they intended to introduce the Heroes to the knights when they finished eating.

"Well then, let's eat!"

And so, they indulged in the cuisine of another world. Naofumi had to admit that some of the food that they were eating seemed a bit bland for his tastes, but nothing he couldn't eat. Though, a lot of it was bizarre. There was even one dish that looked like an omelette but tasted exactly like an orange!

"I have to admit Ren, when I think about it, I realize why you were able to see the icon first before the rest of us." Naofumi started up a conversation to a meal which was quiet.

"What are you talking about?" asked Motoyasu.

"About the Status Magic Icon," explained Naofumi, "he was the first to notice it and knew what it was. I realized it was because of his time in VR."

"How do you figure that?" asked Itsuki.

"Well for the rest of us, when we play games, we do so in front of a scene, but for Ren, he is _within _the game so sees things differently." explained Naofumi, as he thought about what he knew about VR gaming, "So having a status scene or any sort of scene in your face all the time would be hard for Ren, so they would need to deal with it another way. In my world, the basic way that they deal with it is with a controller, allowing the player to open the status bar whatever they need open whenever they wanted."

Motoyasu and Itsuki had to admit seeing how most of the information that they on VR was from their games, this did make some sense. As for Ren, _he _was impressed at the knowledge that Naofumi had for VR. For someone who admitted that he hadn't been in gaming for a while, the second oldest of the group knew more than the two that gamed a lot more than Naofumi.

"In the past, it was the same, we had machines known as FullDive that was designed by a company called Argus." explained Ren, "We would wear an outfit which would allow us to move and make most actions within the game, the only time we would need to use a keypad was to allow us to open our status scene and such. But because we were moving about, we needed a gaming pod to make sure that we don't hurt ourselves. That was until Kayaba Akihiko, a development director create the second generation of the FullDive, the NerveGear, which came out last month in my world.

"The NerveGear was better than the first generation, as whilst you still needed to wear an outfit, you no longer needed a gaming pod." explained Ren, smiled at the fact of this, as he often hurt himself in the gaming pod. "The difference is with the helmet, as there's a device at the back of it that sends fake signals to the five senses of the user. Not only does the device capable of inducing fake sensory signals, but it can also block every movement command from the brain to the body, preventing the player from moving their body while in FullDive to avoid injuries. The devices are also capable of blocking sensory information from the body to the brain, thus, while using it, the player is completely insensate to the physical world."

"So how do you open your inventory and status scene?" asked Motoyasu.

"With our mind of course." Ren told them simply, as if it was the most basic thing in the world, for _him _though, it was, "Whilst in the game, we push a button in the game that opens the scenes that we needed. With some games, we can subconsciously use magic as long as the skills were selected to be used."

The three other heroes had to admit that they wished that their world had this VR system, as it would give them a gaming experience that they could only dream of.

As they were thinking of the possibilities of a NerveGear, Naofumi decided to ask the three for some tips to get stronger. "Guys, there's something I would like to ask you three. I was wondering if there are any tips I could get stronger, or be more useful to my team tomorrow? As you know, I haven't been gaming for a while, and with being a Shielder, I won't be much help in the early stages until I get stronger, which I want to do as soon as possible. So I was wondering if any of you could help me out with a few tips."

Motoyasu and Itsuki didn't seem to want to help, maybe because he was the Shielder and they didn't think that anything that any tips they give him would make him any stronger. But Ren had a thoughtful look on his face as if he had other things on his mind that he was trying to work out. But after a few moments, Ren said, "Listen, whilst I admit any tips that we might give might not work for him, wouldn't it be better to give him any tips we might have. They might be a chance that these tips might actually help him and in turn, help us when we face a powerful wave. Not only that but our tips might be able to help each other."

"Whilst this world as the system of a gaming world, I don't know if it'll be anything like the games that I play in my world. So until I know for sure, I can't really give you any real tips." Motoyasu informed the other heroes, "But even if that is the case, the tip I'll give you is the one I'm going to be trying out and that's to try and copy other spears, but you, you would need to copy shields."

"Copying shields?" Naofumi asked confused, "How would that help me?"

Motoyasu and Itsuki looked like this was the stupidest thing ever said by the looks that they were giving him, whilst Ren couldn't believe what Naofumi said either, he seemed to be more understanding. "Motoyasu, it is possible that in Naofumi's world, they didn't have such an ability in their games as they did in ours. Let me explain it to him and if I am wrong, you can correct me." Ren told Motoyasu.

"Sure, I have no problems with that." Motoyasu agreed with the idea, not wanting to deal with someone he thought was an idiot.

"Okay Naofumi, by the looks of things, the game system in mine, Motoyasu and Itsuki worlds seem to be the same for this." Ren told the twenty-year-old, "Or at least for this part at least. Now, in Bravestar Online, we had an ability that depending on the class of weapon you may use, you can copy the same type of weapons to gain better stats and gain power-ups. For me, I often played as a swordsman, so I would copy swords to gave me better attack points and sometimes better skills. So as a Shielder, apart from some more defence stats, you may gain some counter-attacks to help you."

"Oh I see," Naofumi said simply, as he understood what Ren was telling him, "so copying shields might be useful for me."

"Yeah it might," admitted Motoyasu, "although, as I said, I don't know how this worlds system works yet, so it is possible it might not work." Whilst he believed that it might work, he didn't want Naofumi to gain these skills, as whilst it might be handy for Naofumi, Motoyasu believed that in the long run, it would be nothing but trouble for the rest of them. As there was just so many counters could do for a Shielder, the rest of the work would be down to the fighters to protect the damn Shielder instead of fighting the monsters and bosses, it was best if Naofumi didn't even try. So he would stay away from the fights and they don't have to protect him and work on the real reason they were there, to defeat the Waves.

Naofumi was happy to hear this if getting a weapon doesn't pan out, he can work on getting better shields from the shops. He was glad that he asked for tips, otherwise, he could be in trouble.

"Well I think I'll go next," Ren told them, "my tip is about monster drops."

"Monster drops? Are you sure they'll work the same way as in games?" asked Naofumi, "I don't think that when we defeat monsters, they would drop items and money like they would in games."

"I'm with Naofumi with this one," Motoyasu agreed with the Shield Hero on this, "whilst we're in a gaming world, I believe that there might be a few things that won't be the same as in the games we play. Almost everything yes, but I don't think that monsters drop items when defeated would be one of them."

"I don't believe that either," admitted Ren, "I often thought that if the monster disappears right away, you would lose many useful things, like meat, skin, fur and such. In most games that I played, you would only get so much from the animal/monster that was defeated. But in Bravestar Online, they allow the animal/monster to stay around for a while so that the player can harvest the parts they want and over time the monster would disappear. Not only that, but we can absorb some of the parts into our weapons, where it'll give us loot depending on the animal/monster it is. It could be more meat and fur, or it could be weapons, potions and such. So, if the monsters here don't disappear, I'll be doing trying out the loot system from Bravestar Online, you lot should try as well."

Now Naofumi and the others found this bit of information useful, as it would give them more ways to gain money in this world. So that they could buy new weapons and armour, not only for themselves but for their companions. They all agreed that they would try this out.

"My final tip is this, try and see if you can create items with your weapons once you gain or learn recipes." explained Ren, "As in Bravestar Online, it was possible for me to create things with my weapons once I learnt or gain a recipe somehow, either someone give it to me as a reward or I brought it, or I learned it by cooking a meal for myself without a recipe, same with making weapons, medicine and such."

Naofumi found this useful, as this was a second way he could make money, to help him in the future. The other two wasn't too sure, sure it was useful, but they weren't the kind of people to make things, they found it easier and faster to buy things from the shops.

"So what about you Itsuki , do you have any tips I could use?" asked Naofumi.

"Not really no," admitted Itsuki, "I don't know what I can or cannot do here, so it is best for me to wait to see what I can do before giving put tips. All I can say is level up as fast as possible, so that you can get the rare and unique items sooner. Not only that, but if you work on levelling up sooner, you would be able to get the better skills much sooner, instead of dealing with the weaker skills."

Whilst Ren and Motoyasu nodded in agreement with Itsuki, for some reason Naofumi felt differently. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that whilst most of the weaker abilities that they could gain were useless there are some that could be useful. Like say he had a Rope Shield, to other people that could be considered as an unless skill, what use could you have for such a shield? But Naofumi could already think of a way it could be useful, he could tie up parts of a monsters body, legs and arms, so that if he couldn't defeat it, his companions could do so much easier with the monster tied up.

Thinking of this, Naofumi said to them, "I disagree about levelling up too fast and missing out of some skills because they seem useless. Think about a light skill, other than lighting up your path it can be useless otherwise, but if you can make it brighter, you could blind the monster so that it hard for it to attack you and allow you to put in some attacks."

"Seems like too much work," The Spear informed the Shield Hero, with the Bow Hero nodding in agreement, "I would prefer levelling and getting the more powerful skills. It would be faster and easier to do than wasting a lot of time dealing with the weaker skills."

"I have to agree with Motoyasu," Itsuki agreed the eldest of them, "why should we waste time working on weak skills to make them stronger, when stronger abilities will help in the long run."

Naofumi wasn't going to argre over this, as he knew each person does things differently, so he didn't want to fight over this. But he could see that Ren didn't agree with the two and that he had a thoughtful look on his face, he expected that the younger male was thinking over what he was saying and rethinking a few things.

Seeing how it was getting late, the four of them decided to turn in for the night and so they went to the common room that the king give them for the night.

_**o0OoO0o**_

As the four returned to the common room, asked Motoyasu, "Do you think they've got a bath here?"

Naofumi was wondering about this himself, as he would have like a bath too.

"It's a medieval setting, so chances are they have outdoor wash tubs or an old fashioned Roman hot baths." Ren informed the group.

"I'm sure they'd prepare one for us if we asked." this came from Itsuki.

"Eh, that's okay. It's just one day, after all." This came from Naofumi, who didn't want to have a bath outside nor want to bother the servant to get the hot water for the bath if he could help it. At least not at this time of the night anyway.

"That's true. Anyway, I'm tired, and we've got a big day tomorrow, so I'm gonna go ahead and hit the hay." This came from Motoyasu. It was something they all agreed with, it has been a long day, so they followed Motoyasu's lead and went to bed too.

As Naofumi went to his bedroom, he saw that his bag was there and thought about looking in the bag to see if he could find something to help him with his memories. However with a yawn he decided against it, he would have a look tomorrow, it's not like what he was forgetting was all that important. What could possibly go wrong with not trying to remember something for one night. It's not like his life would go to hell for not doing so. So, with that in mind, Naofumi went to bed and tried to sleep for the night.

_**To be Continued!**_

_**Author's Note:**_ Here ends the next chapter of Shield Demon, I hoped that you enjoyed and the changes that I have made so far. I have decided to write a few more chapters of this story, until Naofumi is blamed for rape, before I start another chapter of my other stories. I am getting into this story and getting the reviews, so I'll be sticking to this story for a little while longer.

Now before I leave you to give me some feedback, I would like your help with two things in this chapter, along with the help with the shield ideas from the past chapters. Would like it if someone could explain the following strengthening methods and how each work, as at least I have no idea how a rarity of an item could change anything. Not only would I like you to explain the following strengthening methods, I would like it if you could come up with ideas for strengthening methods that Naofumi himself could come up with. Please explain as simple as possible, to make it easier for me to understand.

Ren.

Level dependence.

Proficiency: The more the same weapon is used, the more the power increases.

Energy Grant: Hidden power can be unlocked by using energy granted from resetting the weapon's skill proficiency. Additionally, items absorbed into the weapon can be converted into energy.

Rarity Increase: By using energy, it is possible to increase the weapon's rarity. Overall ability will improve.

Motoyasu.

Everything is decided by his weapon. The weapon's original strength doesn't matter much, everything relies on Spirit Enchants. The necessary stats are needed to wield though.

Tempering: Equipment can be strengthened by with the use of ore.

Spirit Enchant: By giving a weapon the fragment of a demon's soul to absorb, special powers can be granted.

Status Enchant: Stats can be increased.

Itsuki.

Everything is decided by bonuses granted by a weapon's rarity.

Reinforcing: A weapon's power can increase by using a specific type of ore.

Item Enchant: Items absorbed into the weapon provides energy that has a chance to increase the weapon's attack percentage.

Job Level: Stats can be boosted up by absorbing items acquired from specific demons.

I'm planning to use the idea from Shall I show you a True Shield? By: Ryujin Maou where Naofumi gets a former shadow of the Queen. But what I want to know does the following words mean and when should I use them?

Degojaru

Degojaruga

Degojaruka

Degojaruyo

Gojaru


	4. Chapter 3

Author's Note: In the last chapter, I got a review from daniel2610994, that got me thinking: he said that whilst he liked the idea of the Shadow slave idea, he didn't think that an OC would be a good idea when I could use characters from anime or manga or even games. He suggested that I use Taki from Soul Caliber, as he believed that she would be perfect as his sexy and faithful. So I thought I would ask you this, anime/manga/game character do you think I should use to be the slave who would become Shadow? I would like a character that has a dark or/and sad past, I would also like it if they were Demi-Humans, so please let me know which race you want them as.

There's a lemon in this chapter, so if you don't like it or you're offended by it, when you see ( . Y . ) ( . Y . ) then you should skip it until you see them again. If you go on and read it, I don't hold any blame if it offends you or you get pissed with it. I warned you ahead of time and you decide to read it anyway.

Chapter Three… 

Renka!

Kingdom of Melromarc, Castle Town, Castle, 5th of January 740, Late Evening:

It has only been about two hours since our four heroes parted ways to sleep, however, the young Renka (Ren) Amaki was unable to sleep. She had a lot on her mind that she found it hard to sleep. So she had one of the servants who were looking after the four heroes that night to run her a bath and not to disturb her. She was glad to see that she was right, the castle had old fashioned Roman hot baths. With her sword on the side of the bath.

As she sat in the bath relaxing, she was thankful to get rid of the bandage that was binding her breasts, as whilst she was able to deal with the pain now, it's still a bother to keep them bound all the time. It felt great when she was able to free them after a long day. It's because she kept them bound that she believed that she didn't have bigger breasts.

Either way, as she relaxed, she began to think about the past day.

The first thing that came to mind was her sword, whilst she was able to put down her sword and place it on something like a table, unlike something Naofumi is unable to do, she couldn't go far away from it. She learned this as she was going to the bath, as she left her sword on her bed so she could wash without it getting in the way. But as she got a few floors down from the sword, it suddenly appeared in her hand. It would seem that whilst she was able to put her weapon down, she couldn't go far away from it before reappear in her hand. Whilst useful to know, it would also be a pain.

Next thing her mind was that instead of dying as she expected to happen, she was transported to another world where she was expected to save it. She didn't know if she was brought back to life to save this world, or she was summoned right before she died and healed somehow. Her first thought was her family and friends, were they okay, she hoped that they would be okay in time. She hoped that now that she was alive, she could, hopefully, one day return to her family and friends and tell them how she felt about them.

But as she thought about it she started to rethink a few of her thoughts about her world, mostly thinking why would she want to return to her world. A world where she would most likely be arrested and where her family was most likely punished for her pretending to be a boy. As she wasn't sure how this summoning worked, for all she knew, this body was just a copy of her original. If there was a body in her world, people would find the truth about her and her family would be arrested for hiding the fact that she was a girl and helped her to be a boy. Should they find out anyone else helped them, they too would be arrested.

So she started to wonder if she really wanted to return to her old world. Depending on what this world's opinion on females are, she might try to find a way to reconnect to her world but instead of going back home maybe bringing people here pacific people the ones she cares about from her world.

She also had to wonder why, out of all the people in all the worlds out there, why was she picked as a hero of this world? The only thing that she could think of, was that she was a gamer, someone one who used swords when playing. And because one of the legendary weapons was a sword, she was picked as its user for whatever reason.

The other thoughts that she had were about the other hero who was summoned to this world, Naofumi Iwatani, the Shield Hero. She was shocked to find that she was falling for him, it was something that she believed would never happen. Because of the way she was treated in her world and the fear of what would happen if a female found out about her secret and told the police, she swore that she would never fall in love with a man ever and was nervous to fall in love with a female not knowing even if she swung that way. But the moment she set sight on Naofumi, she began to feel feelings she never thought she would ever have, it confused her. She had to wonder if this was what they called love at first sight.

She didn't know what it was, but the moment she saw him she felt something awaken within her. Like some kind of fire was lit up and it was burning with passion. At first, she wasn't too sure about him, as he didn't seem to know what was going on, but over time he impressed her. Like when the king forgot to ask his name, Naofumi firm but politely reminded the king that he was there and told off that womanizing man who trying to belittle him for being the Shielder. Sure she didn't say anything, but that's because, in her opinion, she too believed that it was a weak and useless class. But that's only because she mostly plays by herself and it was too difficult of a class to play that way, otherwise, it takes a very determined and interesting person to fight against something that everyone seems to belittle.

Now that she took time to think about it, she realized that something wasn't right about how people were treating Naofumi. She didn't know what was going on, but the king and the nobles seemed to look down at him. Was it because he was a Shielder? If that was the case, why did they summon him in the first place if they had problems with a Shield Hero? Renka knew that she had to keep an ear out and see if she could find out what was going on there because she didn't want to bring her friends and family here to this world if there was a chance that this world could be possibly worse than hers.

Sure she had her own issues about Naofumi, but for those who summoned them there, they should show at least some respect. It wasn't like that they asked to be there in the first place, although for her, Motoyasu and Itsuki were somewhat happy that they were summoned, as they were now alive instead of dead.

Although it was unlikely, she had to wonder if Naofumi could become strong here, even if he is the Shielder. As he pointed out to them, their weapons were meant to be Legendary so the possibilities are endless. Whilst very unlikely, it was possible that he might be able to give him strength beyond anything they thought possible for a Shielder. Not only that, but he made her realize that whilst some of the weaker skills were useless, there could be a few weaker skills like the light skill that if levelled up enough to become strong, she might be able to blind an enemy. Because of this, she would look over all the skills that she gets and see if they had any other ways to be used if so, she would work on them otherwise she would go on to the other useful skills.

While she might not team up with Naofumi, preferably teaming up with Motoyasu and Itsuki who were stronger, she wouldn't mind spending some time with the Shield Hero and get to know him better. If he was to be treated, she might let him know about her secret and see where things go. And if he ever becomes strong enough to defend himself fully without relying on her and the other two heroes, she might be willing to work as a team with him. Okay, maybe not team up with him, given that their weapons would make that difficult, but at least work with him and hear him out he seems to be quite insightful.

Although she knew she had to change her attitude around him though, at the moment, Naofumi might see her a stuck up bastard with the way she showed herself to others. But that's the way she was brought up, show others that she was above the rest. Not to show any weakness at all. She had to be a strong male figure, confident and willing to do whatever it took to get what she wants. Even if it meant that she came off as some sort of asshole towards others, she hated playing that kind of role, however, it was necessary to keep her secret. She barely let any of her friends know the truth about her, she had to keep everyone at arm's length until they prove themselves trustworthy.

She wasn't sure if she could change, only time would tell.

As she was thinking about the past day and about Naofumi, she heard the bathroom door open and to her shock and horror, Naofumi entered. "Hey Ren, the servants told me you'd be-" began Naofumi but stopped halfway and his glanced down towards the waterline, where he saw that he was now looking at naked female instead of Ren. So out of respect and embarrassment, he turned around and said in shock, "I'm, I'm sorry! I was told that the Sword Hero, Ren Amaki, was in here." He felt somewhat stupid that he didn't knock first, as it was possible that Ren could have left already.

'Crap, crap…' Renka thought in a panic as she grabbed her sword and quickly put it in the water with her, hoping that Naofumi didn't see it. She wasn't expecting another hero to be awake at this time of night apart for her, as she covered herself up, she thought to herself, 'What should I do here?'

Now she could do what she always does, play dumb and use her feminine voice and tell whoever was looking for Ren had just left or some other excuse. This always worked and so far no one suspected a thing. But the problem was that the servant outside the bathroom, she had no idea if they left for a short while or not. As if they hadn't left and Naofumi asked questions about Ren leaving or not, her secret could be revealed before she wanted it to.

So she had two options, do what she always did and lie and hope that the servant outside the bathroom wasn't always there, or she could tell the truth and hope for the best. So with only a few moments to think about it, she went with what she thought was for the best, "Well…"

o0OoO0o

Short while before:

Naofumi Iwatani awoke after a couple of hours of sleep, he awoke in a cold sweat. He had a strange dream about demonic purple flames with red eyes. As Naofumi lay there, slowly waking up fully, the more he fought to remember what happened in the dream. But the little he could remember was that the flames spoke to him in a deep in commending voice almost as if it were a roaring dragon claiming its power to the world! The strangest thing was that he felt no fear towards the flames, yes he felt the power, anger and a lot of darkness but he felt no fear towards it. The strange thing was that he felt like the flames were familiar somehow.

He tried his best to remember the words that the purple flame spoke to him, but it was hard for him to remember. It welcomed him to the world, it also mentioned that like many other Naofumi's within the multiverse, he had arrived at his destiny in one of the multiverse worlds of Azeroth.

It warned him like many other hims, he would soon be lead down a difficult path, a path where his actions would have dire consequences depending on which path he took. Depending on the path he takes, would make him the saviour of the people or the saviour of the world! But it would be up to him to decide which path to take. But before the flames could say which path would lead to what, he awoke in a sweat.

He had no idea what the flames were or where it came from, so he awakened in a cold sweat. So he seats up sweating, Naofumi had to wonder what the hell happened, but before he did anything else he immediately grabbed his bag and started to sketch out the flame and write down the words it spoke as he did with all his other dreams. He had to wonder where did this dream come from and more importantly, what was in his future, he did not know but he had a strong feeling that what he's been dreaming for a long while is about to come true, he could easily tell that there is going to be a lot of dark times and very little happy times ahead of him but he wonders what path would he pick?

But as he was drawing, he saw his past drawings, namely the heroes with the sword, bow and spear. And for the first time since he drew them, he could tell what the faces he wanted to draw for them. The faces were none other than the three heroes that he meets early that day. He even had the face for the Trash King, the same king that he meet that day. But for the others? For some reason, he was still unable to see their faces, they were blank to them.

This development led to a few questions, like why did he have dreams of these people for the last few months. He had to wonder why he wasn't able to see the other faces that he drew from his dreams? Was it he had to see them first before he could draw them? More importantly, why the hell did he draw Ren's face on a female's body? Ren was a male and not a female. Was it because of what was said about her on the drawing, that she wasn't what she seems? No, why would a female pretend to be a male and vice versa? He would have to think about this when he was fully awake in the morning, the only thought he could come up with was that he believed he was a woman trapped in a man's body.

Either way though, seeing how he was sweaty, Naofumi knew he couldn't get to sleep right away, so he decided to see if the servants were awake and ask them to run a bath for him. He knew it was late and more than likely they would be asleep, but he needed to clean up if he wanted to get some sleep. As he suspected that the next day would be very busy given that it'll be the beginning of his journey, as he looked over and stared at the three pictures and felt a strong connection to him, the raccoon-dog girl, the angel girl and now a purple flame with piercing red eyes.

Thankfully though, there was a servant who was awake. He was shocked to learn that Ren too wanted a bath, so they had run one for him too. And although Ren didn't want to be disturbed by the servants, Naofumi was a Hero and so it should be fine. So they lead the Shield Hero to the bath that was run for Ren.

"Hey Ren, the servants told me you'd be-" began Naofumi as he entered the bathroom but stopped halfway and his glanced down towards the waterline, where he saw that he was now looking at naked female instead of Ren. Naofumi had to guess that she had either a b-cup or c-cup breasts. It took him a few seconds to realize what he was seeing, so out of respect and embarrassment, he turned around and said in shock, "I'm, I'm sorry! I was told that the Sword Hero, Ren Amaki, was in here." He felt somewhat stupid that he didn't knock first, as it was possible that Ren could have left already.

Truth was, he was only embarrassed because he didn't know the girl, nor was he expecting to see a naked girl when he entered the bathroom. He was used to seeing a woman naked, as long as ready for it. The reason that he was used to seeing a naked woman was thanks to his friends from his world. In the last two years, they set him up on blind dates as they didn't want him being single or be a shut-in as they feared he would be with college and the things he was into.

Because of this, some of his dates wanted sex with him. At first, he wasn't interested in sex, as he thought that it meant that it was for couples who wanted a serious relationship. But it wasn't until one date that his date informed him that sex didn't mean that you had to be in a serious relationship. That nowadays, women had sex to blow off steam and to relax and fun, not wanting a serious relationship. This date gave Naofumi his first blow job, which lead to sex.

After that night, Naofumi realized that his date was right, it was relaxing and helped him with stress in his life. So from there on, whenever he had a stressful week or months, he would go on a date with the women he knew who only wanted to have fun. But they were women who he knew and knew him, and knew he wasn't in it for a relationship so they made sure to use protection for no accidental bundles of joy would be causing then any stress at their ages. At the time, he wasn't looking to settle down or have children.

After a few moments, the young lady said shyly, "Well you see Naofumi, I am in fact Renka Amaki."

"What!?" Naofumi asked in shock, unable to believe this as she turned around to see that she covered herself up with a towel. Was his picture about her right, that there was more to her than meets the eyes, "How is this possible? Thought you were a man. Although I have to admit, I thought that if you crossdressed you could fool people thinking that you were a woman."

"That's what I wanted everyone to think." explained Ranka.

"Why?" asked Naofumi. He couldn't understand why a woman would want to make people think that she was a male.

"Well you see…" and from here, Ranka began to tell her story about her world. Where women were nothing more than second class citizens, that they had no say in most things and as long as they weren't killed or hurt too badly, men could treat them more or less any way they wanted.

She explained some of the harsh conditions of her world, where girls and boys normally went to two different schools and learn different things even going as far as, 'shivering.' Although, she did went to one of the rare few schools where boys and girls were allowed in the same school, but there were only a handful of girls who went to the school.

She also explained that any man or boy could enter any of the female school and walk into any classroom and pick up a student and take them out of school to have their way with the student, even going as far as not using any protection causing the female student to become impregnated and then dumping the child on the female. If it's a boy, he'll be taken away from her and raised somewhere better but if it's a girl, then the child is responsible for taking care of the kid. Naofumi could sense the anger in Ranka's voice as she explained this.

More so when she asked him if he knew how hard it is for a young girl who has barely got out of puberty to take care of a child and still go to school or even take care of herself?

So because this, her parents didn't want her to be treated like other women, they had her pretend to be a boy where only a handful of people knew the truth about her. In her old life, she became a loner, so that no one could learn the truth about her.

Naofumi couldn't believe it, Ranka's world was like the history of his past world where women had little to no rights at all. It wasn't until a group of women decided to say no more and fought back that things changed for them. Sure there were still some problems, but they had so much more rights than they used to have and the problems that they still had, it was slowly being dealt with. Naofumi had no idea what Renka life really was like, or how she felt or had to do to keep her secret.

But as he thought about it, Naofumi believed that in this world, she might have a better life than in her world. So with a thoughtful look, he asked her, "Have you thought about revealing yourself in this world? You could have a much better life than you did in your old world."

"I have in fact," admitted Renka, "once I have seen how women are treated here, as long as they are treated well enough, I was thinking about revealing myself."

"Why not right off the bat?" asked Naofumi as he thought about what he had seen so far from that day, "There were a few noblewomen at the meeting with the king earlier."

"I don't know," Renka wearily told Naofumi, "all we know is that they were wives of the husbands there."

"I doubt it," Naofumi informed the young teen, "if women were treated as bad here as they were in your world, I doubt they would be at the meeting. Not with how important this meeting was today. And if I am wrong, you're a Hero or in this case, a Heroine of the Sword, do you really think they would treat you so badly? They'll do whatever they could to keep you happy seeing that we're here to save their world."

Renka had to admit that she hadn't thought about it like that, Naofumi was right, she was the Hero, no the Heroine of the Sword. She was summoned her to save their world, so it would be very unlikely that they would treat her badly, they would do whatever they could to stay in her good books. She could have a very good life seeing how she was going to be a Heroine of this world, she could have nearly anything she wanted as long as saved the world and didn't die.

She realized that if it wasn't for Naofumi if he didn't give her more information to think about, she might have been stuck as pretending to be a male so much longer than she would have liked. The only thing that made her hesitate, was her thoughts about Motoyasu, who seemed to exactly represent the men of her world. Although she couldn't help but realize that Naofumi could be the man she could spend the rest of her life with, he was kind, caring, thoughtful and smart - with him by her side, Motoyasu might not be a problem. Not only that, but he didn't care that she was a woman and wasn't treating her like other men would from her world, he was actually treating her the exact opposite way what made her smile at him and got out of the water and gave him a hug.

"Listen Renka I'm not going to force you to do anything that you're not willing to do." Naofumi said with a warm smile, as he softly pushed the young woman off him, as he did so, he saw the towel that was covering her dropped. So out of respect and embarrassment, he turned around.

He went on to say, "You should do what you think is best for you. But I should warn you though if you decided to wait to reveal yourself, it might cause you more problems when you do. As you might lose any trust that you might have with them, as they might believe that if you can lie about who you really are, even if you have good reasons to do so, what else could you be lying about. They might stop helping you and create problems for you. I don't know about in your world, but in my world, it is believed that you're a hero as long as the people want you to be one. Upset them or do something bad and they could make you out as a Demon Lord that the hero meant to defeat."

Renka could see the sense in Naofumi's words, even in her world, in comics, they would call people a hero or villain depending on their actions. So if she decides to wait before telling people the truth, then there could be a few problems. She knew that she had to think about this really carefully. But she would do that later.

Now she thought about it, she began to wonder something and so asked, "Naofumi, what are you doing here anyway? I thought you were sleeping when I left our room."

"I was, but I woke up in a cold sweat," explained Naofumi, "so I thought I would take a bath before going back to bed and try to sleep again. I asked the servants to run me a bath, but they informed me that they had already have done one for you and so lead me here." Then a thought occurred to him and so asked the female Sword Heroine, "Why did you tell the truth about who you really are?"

"To be honest, I only told you so that you wouldn't ask questions to the servants." Renka explained, "I didn't know if they were still out there waiting for me to ask them for something or not, or if they have left. Not only that but if you started to ask about a strange woman who was in the bath where the male Sword Hero was, they would arrest me and asked questions that I don't want to answer. I hoped that if you knew, you would be willing to keep this information to yourself."

"It's not my secret to tell," the Shield Hero informs her, "I'm not the type of guy to tell another person's secrets. The only time I would even think about doing so is if that secret was going to put another person in danger somehow.

Renka bit her bottom lip for a few seconds as she heard this before she smiled and nodded to herself. She was grateful, she was happy that he wouldn't tell others about her secret, and seeing that it wasn't going to put others into danger, there was no reason for him to tell others.

She suddenly realized that she was totally naked, she was about to cover herself up again, but then she realized that Naofumi came here for the same reason as her - for a bath. She realized that if the Shield Hero came out of the bathroom so soon, it would raise a few questions, "Well since you're sweaty and you wanted a bath why don't you join me?" Renka asked shyly, she was nervous and had a blush on her face but a confident smile. "It'll be strange if you leave before having a bath, it would raise questions, questions that I don't want until I decided what to do."

Naofumi swallowed and pulled at the neck of his collar, he was a man and when a woman asked a man to join her in a bath, only a fool would turn that down. Although, if you were taken that was another matter altogether. So he turned around slowly to face Renka, making sure to get a good eye fall.

Renka blushed even more, whilst a bit angry at him doing so, she knew that he was a male and like it or not, males often do such things. If she was in her world, she knew that most men would do more than stare at her, they would take her somewhere private and have fun with her. So this was nothing really, in fact, part of her, strangely enough, liked him looking at her like this.

As she was thinking about this, she heard the Shield Hero say, "I have no problems at all with sharing a bath with you."

Whilst he has done so many times before, he got undressed in front of the young female. But the thing was before he did so with people he knew or at the very least went on a date with beforehand. Renka though was a total stranger, neither did he knew her beforehand, they didn't even go on a date. So he was a bit embarrassed at undressing in front of her, but the room didn't have a changing room, so he got undressed and put his clothes on a shelf that was in the room.

As he undressed though, Renka was taking a good view of his body, whilst his body wasn't all that musically, the Shield Hero seemed to have a good size cock. Most of the cocks that she saw in her world were way so smaller, only a handful from her school was bigger. So to see a cock which was slightly bigger than she used to see, she couldn't help but gain a deep blush.

Once Naofumi was undressed, the two entered the bath together, where for a few minutes neither of them spoke about anything. Both were blushing, Renka more than Naofumi, who was used to this.

"Listen, I'm not the type to normally apologize to people, but I would like to say sorry about early with the others." Renka apologized to Naofumi, after a few minutes as she thought about how she treated him earlier, "I'm in a new world and where I come from, I have to do things that benefit me and it looked like a good idea to side with the other two heroes over you. And whilst I agree that Shielders are normally useless in games, that's only if they are solo players. If they are in a party and got the right abilities, they can be the most important player in the party, as they would be able to defend the rest of the party whilst the others attacked."

Naofumi was glad to hear that at least one person wasn't fully against him being a Shielder, but he had to wonder something though. "Why did you side with the other two, why not with me?"

"Because you are a Shielder." Renka informed Naofumi, shocking him. Didn't she just say that being a Shielder might not be a bad thing as long as they had the right skills? "I'm a loner plain and simple, but when I do have to work in a group, I often go with the strongest and as much as you might hate to admit it, that's just not you. Unless by some miracle happens, that might not ever be you. And in this world, which is much like a game, you'll often be facing against strong monsters and demons, so you'll need to side with strongest and those with weapons that can fight, because of this, I've decided to side with them."

"So you don't think I'll be strong enough? Even with the tips, I was given early?" Naofumi asked saddened, he had hoped that he had an ally with the Sword Hero.

"Honestly?" ask Renka, "I don't know. We have a limited amount of time and we have no idea how to level up our weapon, or how powerful they can become. Right now? With what I know about Shielder from my world? I believe that whilst you might be able to defend us in small weak attacks when we face against huge and powerful groups that we more than likely are facing later on. You'll be more of a liability than an asset, as you would have no real attack power. That's what I hate about the Shield Class, it's low attack power, whoever becomes one can put their party at risk if they ever face huge and powerful groups of monsters. As the attackers would have to keep an eye on the Shielder just in case he gets overwhelmed. So when facing small groups of monsters, I'm more than happy to have you at my side, but in when facing the other kind of fights we'll be facing, I prefer siding with the other two. Even if one of them is a womanising asshole."

As much as he hated to admit it, he could see Renka's point here, he wasn't the strongest of the four heroes and unless he could find a weapon or good companions to fight alongside him, he would be in trouble.

"I have to admit that you are right that the shield isn't strong on its own and I probably will need my teammates to protect me," admitted Naofumi with a sigh, "but as I said earlier, this is real life, not a game and these are meant to be Legendary Weapons, not some rare item drops. I might have been out of gaming for a long time, but that doesn't mean I still don't remember a lot about them and I remember a lot about anime too. I might not be on the front lines, but I still have a job here, like protecting the innocent from the minions whilst you fight the boss and its supporters. So if I can't raise my offence, I'll have to find ways to raise my defence instead."

"Hahaha! Now that's funny," Renka laughed, thinking Naofumi was making a joke, "I don't know about you, but in what game would defence be needed more than a long-range bow a mid-range spear or a close-range sword?"

"Well think about it for a minute, we're in a different world and by the way, it was explained to us, these Waves of Disaster can happen anywhere. So there's a high chance that it could happen near a town or even the capital of this land." Naofumi explained to the young woman, "Think about it, what if a whole bunch of monsters just suddenly popped next to your home and only four people could fight them. You would expect the three people who have weapons to start killing off the monsters well the one who can't fight to make sure the civilians got out safely..." here Naofumi started to frown as he realized something, "Oh my gosh, I think I've gained the most hated roll in video game nature in my world, other than a long grind to level up, I think the next hated thing was escort missions." As he made a playful shiver of disgust what Renka saw and after that sentenced she burst out laughing bending over what gave Naofumi a good look at her jiggling breasts what started to have a small real action on him due to the heat of the bath and being next to a cute girl.

Ranka had to admit Naofumi was right, in the games that she played, the minions were the weakest of the lot, whilst the boss and its supporters were the strongest. So Naofumi could be protecting the villages and the innocent whilst she and the other two heroes were dealing with the boss.

For the next few minutes, neither of them said anything, just sitting there, enjoying the hot bath and thinking about what was said. It would seem that there was some sort of magic to keep the bath from getting cold like the baths in their world would. But after a few minutes though, Ranka asked in interest, "Have you checked your stats yet?"

"To be honest not yet," admitted Naofumi, "with everything that went on today, I didn't think about it. Seeing that I have time now, I could see what my stats are and look at the rest tomorrow when I have more time." Here Ranka nodded in agreement, she too didn't fully look at her stats yet, so now was the best time as any.

When Naofumi looked over to Renka to see her stats, he realized for the first time that she was staring into thin air. It would seem that only the individual can see their status, which as he thought about it made a lot of sense. As if others could see it, someone could spy on you and possibly learn how to fight against you.

Once Naofumi opened his stats, the first thing he saw was this:

Basic Stats(?)

Seeing the question mark, Naofumi pushed it and saw the help bar pop-up.

HELP!

To see full stats, go to profile.

'Hmm, interesting.' Naofumi thought thoughtfully if he had more time he would check his profile, but seeing how the servants could come in at any time to see if he and Ren were alright, he decided would check on his stats later, or now he would see what these basic stats were.

Name: Naofumi Iwatani. Race: Human Class: Legendary Shield Hero. Guild: None.

Level: 1 EXP: 0/60 Skill Points: 0 Attribute Points: 0

Status: Adventure.

Special Abilities: four.

Perfect Balance.

Drunkenness Null.

Animal Charisma.

Clairvoyance.

Health Points: 150 Mana Points: 40 Spirit Points: 40

Physical Attack: 1 Magic Attack: 15

Physical Defence: 40 Magic Defence: 20

Stamina: 100 Carry Weight: 175 lbs

Elemental status

Fire Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Electricity Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Water Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Light Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Wind Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Ice Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Earth Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Darkness Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

"I'm more fucked than I first thought." Naofumi said with a deep sigh, as he saw his stats so far. Whilst most of them were good for someone who was level one in games, his attack was lower than he expected. He knew it would be low, but a single attack point wasn't what he was expecting.

"What's wrong Naofumi?" asked Renka.

"I know you and the other said that a Shielder was weak, but I had no idea they were this weak." Naofumi told the Sword Hero.

"What do you mean?" asked the female Sword Hero.

"My attack point has only one point into it." the Shielder told her, "I expected it to be low, but not this low."

"I'm somewhat shocked too," admitted Renka, "I was expecting your attack points to be low, but not as low as that. For level one, I was expecting your attack points to be at least three maybe five points into an attack, not just one."

"So what's your stats like?" asked Naofumi.

Renka seemed to think about this, Naofumi thought that she didn't want to hurt his feelings more, before she said, "How about I show you?"

"How?" asked the Shield Hero.

Instead of answering right away, a card appeared out of the back of her hand, "It seems that we can make what they call Status Card appear whenever we want. From the help bar, it says it's some sort of identity card. You should be able to find it in your status bar, it looks like a card symbol, activate it and the card should appear."

"Hmm?" Naofumi hummed thoughtfully, he was somewhat confused as he looked at the status screen, "Strange, I don't remember seeing that there before." But the second he touched his scream it rippled for a second as a help menu showed up telling him about the status card, "Oh here it is? I just must have missed it?"

HELP!

A form of identity card for Shop Keeps, Guild and the like.

'Now that's interesting.' Naofumi thought to himself, having these sort of card would be handy, it would be an easy way to identify the person and the level they were. He knew that in games knowing one's level was important, as there were items and missions that you cannot do until you were a certain level. Either because the items had a level cap, or the missions were dangerous that low-level players would be in danger if they went on a high-level mission. So to make sure that items and missions were given to the right people, they had these cards.

So summoning his own Status Card, he give it to Renka to look at as he read hers:

Name: Ranka Amaki. Race: Human Class: Legendary Sword Hero. Guild: None.

Level: 1 EXP: 0/60 Skill Points: 0 Attribute Points: 0

Status: Adventure.

Special Abilities: None.

Health Points: 120 Mana Points: 30 Spirit Points: 50

Physical Attack: 40 Magic Attack: 25

Physical Defence: 10 Magic Defence: 5

Stamina: 120 Carry Weight: 150 lbs

Elemental status

Fire Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Electricity Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Water Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Light Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Wind Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Ice Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Earth Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Darkness Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Naofumi and Ranka both winced at the same time when they look at each other's cards.

"Well, at least you have a good defence for being the Shield Hero." Ranka tries to say in the nicest tone she could.

"For a Shielder, they are some good stats, although your attack stats aren't too bad," admitted Naofumi, but slumped into the water before saying, "I do feel that I got totally got ripped off with the attack power though."

Renka felt sorry for the young man in front of her, it would seem as if luck wasn't on his side, so moving next to him, she put her arm around him and said trying to cheer him up, "At least your defence makes up for it. It would be very unlikely that a low enemy would be able to harm you, unlike me. And those abilities seems to be interesting."

"You might be right." Naofumi said with a sigh, unsure what he thought about it all. But before he could say or think about it much, he realized how close Renka was to him and how her breast was touching him. He was red-faced at this, don't get him wrong, he liked it, but he didn't really know Renka and so unsure about her to be this close to her. So pulling away from her, he said, "I think we should get changed before the servants come in to see if we're okay."

"You're right." admitted Renka, unhappy a bit that Naofumi pulled away. This was the first time that she was this close to a man in her true form, and she was enjoying it. She really didn't want it to end. But she could understand why Naofumi did though, it is highly likely that if they took more time, the servants could come in to see if everything was alright. And if they did right now, they could find out about her and she didn't think she was ready for that.

So realizing that neither could stay in there for any longer, the two of them got out of the bath and dried and dress before having the servants take them back to their rooms.

o0OoO0o

As the two arrived at the common room, they were going to part ways, when Renka decided that it was time to do something she always tried to fight against, go with her feelings. Not once did she do this, so she was afraid in doing so, but knew that if she didn't she would always be running from them. So as Naofumi got to his room he was staying at for the night, Renka went up to him and said, "I would like to thank you for tonight, you give me much to think about."

"No worries, I was happy to talk to you." Naofumi informed the young female teen with a smile, "If you ever need to talk about anything, I would be more than happy to talk to you."

"Thanks." thanked Renka, as she pulled all the courageous that she had and kissed the young man in front of her.

( . Y . ) ( . Y . )

Naofumi was shocked at this, he wasn't expecting her to kiss him from what she told him about herself. But here she was, kissing him passionately, leading them into his room. Once there, she shocked Naofumi by pushing him down onto the edge of his bed, making him set down. Here she knelt down between his legs and pulled his trousers and pants down, revealing his cock.

Sure she saw it in the bathroom, but not this close, nor was it so hard as it is now. She studied his cock and balls, she couldn't help but whisper to herself, "Their lovey."

It shocked her more than Naofumi, she never once thought she would be in this situation, wanting to suck a man's cock. In fact, until now she feared to do so, but now, she couldn't wait to try it. She had watched movies and such, so she knew what to do, but she never did it before, so she was nervous.

"Thanks, Renka. I'm pleased you think so, but you know you don't have to do this." Naofumi told her seeing how nervous she was, "I'm guessing this is your first time, so it should be someone that you love and care for, not some one night stand."

"I know that, but this is what I want." Renka admitted to the young man as she studied his cock from every angle, gently lifting it so she could see underneath, savouring the wonder of this young man's cock. She thought it was beautiful, this was the most perfect part of him. Her fingertips moved from the base up to the tip, studying, enjoying its softness. Gently, she explored his testes, her pussy was tingling as she moved her hand around Naofumi's cock. She stroked his large balls with care, conscious of the pain she could cause if she was too rough.

Naofumi gasped as Renka's lips fluttered over his head, teasing him, exciting him with the lightest of touches. Slowly, she pushed out her tongue and licked him, spreading her tongue over his velvet glans. She felt movement, so she did it again, knowing she could make him happy. The Shield Hero was breathing heavily as she continued to tongue him. As her tongue and lips continued their tender assault on his mushroom tip, Renka began to slowly wank him off. With a tight grip on his shaft, close to the base, she wanked him, heaving his heavy balls up with each tug.

"Are, are you sure you never have done this before?" Naofumi asked in pleasure, unable to believe that this was her first time.

"I'm sure, I'm just doing what I have seen done on VR sex videos." the female Sword Hero admitted with a blush, as she continued with her treatment to the young man in front of her.

"Oh, Renka," he hushed as he felt her tongue on the underside of his head.

As she was doing this, Naofumi's hand went behind her back, where he pulled her shirt over her head, to reveal her nice firm breasts. Naofumi smirked as he took advantage of her nakedness and petted her succulent boobs.

Renka returned her attention to Naofumi's cock while his finger and thumb's grip on her nipples sent a thrill down to her pussy. 'He might be young, but he sure knew how to pleasure a woman.' Renka thought to herself in pleasure, as Naofumi played with her breasts. She knew that with the attention he was giving her breast, they were soon firm and large like pencil rubbers. She had to wonder, was this just natural for him to do this, or did he train to become this good, if trained, how many other women has he been with. She felt somewhat jealous that she wasn't his first. She knew she was being foolish, but she couldn't help how she felt though. But she would make this his best time though, or at least she hoped.

Her head bobbed up and down on this amazing monster while her firm grip jerked the skin up and down his hard shaft. Renka lovingly caressed his cock with her lips and tongue, her mind satiated with lust. She adored every silky inch of hard muscle that filled her mouth. It was bliss! She kept up the wonderful rhythm, syphoning more and more pre-cum from his ancient cock.

Naofumi groaned over and over as the young girl pleasured him, his fingers pulling on her nipples, stretching them like elastic.

It reached a point when Renka could sense he was about to cum. There was a change in his breathing, an increase in passion, plus a swell in his already rock hard cock. Naofumi's hand abruptly abandoned her nipples and held the sides of her head. She released her handhold on his shaft as he began to jerk his hips upwards. She loved it! He was taking control and fucking her mouth. It drove her crazy, took her over the edge and was enough to make her orgasm.

She didn't even need to touch herself, the thrill of what this twenty-year-old was doing to her, sent her body into the most incredible orgasm she'd ever had. Naofumi also lost control and his cock exploded in her mouth, jetting his cum, filling it with his seed. Renka swallowed, but it was as though the like a dam burst. Torrents of delicious cum splashed into her eager mouth, but she couldn't take all of the deluges. Part spasmed down her throat and the remainder escaped from her mouth, running down his shaft. Her mouth left his cock and Renka sighed with pleasure as she lapped up his spilt cum like a kitten would its milk.

Renka crawled up and sat on his lap with her arms around him.

"Hum… it tasted sweeter than I expected." Renka admitted thoughtfully, "I thought that cum was supposed to taste salty,"

"Haha, not the first time I've heard that," the young man admitted, "I don't know if it's true in your world, but the truth of it all is that it all depends on what you eat. It is said that if you eat enough fruit, sweet food or candy and… well, you get where I'm coming from." Naofumi left it with a chuckle. "I have to admit I never got any complaints."

Renka had to admit that she had heard rumours about this among the men and women in her world, but seeing she was a loner and not into these things, she put no stock into it. But now, she wasn't too sure if it tasted this good. But hearing that he had no complaints got her thinking, she knew it was a foolish thing and had no reason to be jealous, but she was. Maybe he was the first decent man that she met other than her father and a few of his friends, but she somewhat wanted him all for herself with no one in his past that he wanted to go back to.

Whilst she may not like it, she knew that there was no chance of her returning home and if so, it may not be the same time as she left it. But if she wasn't able to her world for one reason or another, she wanted to be happy in this world and hoped that Naofumi would be willing to stay with her. But she knew that if Naofumi had someone back in his world, he might not be willing to stay with her.

To find out one way or another and to see if she had any work in front of her, she asked in a shy and embarrassed tone, not wanting to show that she was trying to pry into his life a bit, "So how many people have you been with? And is there anyone special waiting for you back in your world, anyone who would be upset if you never came back to your world?"

.

"Hum... That's kind of a hard question to answer, I never really kept count of how many partners I've had." Naofumi admitted honestly, in fact, he never thought about it. Sure, he kept names just in case, but he never kept a count. He didn't feel right in doing so. "And to be honest, none of them were serious, as I don't want a serious relationship right now, and to answer your second question I have my mom and dad and my little brother, of course I'm kind of the black sheep of the family so I don't think they'll miss me too much and it's kind of hard to say about my brother but if he knew I was here." as Naofumi smiled he knew that there was going to be tough times ahead for him, "I'm positive my brother would tell me to not waste an opportunity like this then he would slug me in the face and said why the hell did you not tell me you were going to another world and invite me." he said with a chuckle.

"Don't you think that you should wait until you were in a serious relationship before having sex?" asked Renka, sure it wasn't like that in her world, but that's how she would have liked it though.

"I did at first yes," admitted the young man as he pulled down her trousers, as his fingers were at her entrance and their gentle exploration of her. His fingers seemed to be everywhere, stroking her lips, squeezing them, making love to them.

She relaxed and allowed this man to do whatever he wanted, but Naofumi instead went on to say, "I believed that you should be in a serious relationship before having sex. That was until one of my friends convince me that sex was a good stress reliever, and since then I had sex with like-minded women, who just wanted sex for fun and relaxation, nothing serious."

Well as Renka thought about it if men in her world didn't forcibly take sex from women whenever they wanted, and it was equal than yeah it could be a great stress reliever. In fact, what Naofumi was doing to her felt great, sure she played with herself in the past, but it never felt anything like this before. It was so much better. She heard Naofumi ask, "So do you want to carry on, to have some stress relief sex or do you want to go to bed before anyone finds out about us?" Naofumi continued to finger her. Every part was caressed so softly, so tenderly, but he knew to ignore her clit. They knew as soon as he touched it, she would orgasm. Nothing could prevent it.

Renka found herself wetter than ever and couldn't help thinking, 'What do you expect with someone who knows how to pleasure a woman?' She couldn't think sight with Naofumi's naughty fingers poised at her entrance.

Renka had no idea how many of his fingers entered her willing hole, but she felt so wonderfully stretched, so full of his firmness. She gasped as she took him in, filling her, fucking her so beautifully. With a superb languid thrust, Naofumi took possession of her body, pushed deep inside her, taking her breath away. She felt him pushing hard inside, fulfilling every lustful need. He pulled out and she whimpered as he thrust back inside her cunt. She continued to whimper out of control as his fingers slowly fucked her.

Gradually, the pleasure built inside her. But she was in no rush, she was enjoying the feeling so much that she didn't want it to end, so she simply let it take its time. Naofumi's fingers were on her breast, cupping it, his thumb exciting her firm nipple without mercy.

She bathed in his attention to her needs and as her passion began to peak, his thumb was on her clit. He caressed it and she lost it! Her orgasm took over her body, the intense release he gave her spread through her being until she had to muffle her screams of the most delightful fulfilment she'd ever experienced.

She lay in his arms in blissful contentment while she gradually came back to earth or wherever the hell they are.

"Mmm," Renka whispered in delight. "Thank you, you're amazing, Naofumi."

She turned her head so he could kiss her.

When they broke the kiss, Naofumi hushed, "It was nothing, I'm just glad you enjoyed yourself. So do you want to see how it fully feels being a real woman, or do you want to give it a rest and you head off to your bed?"

Renka wasn't thinking clearly, all she knew was that she wanted this feeling to continue, "Please don't stop, I want more. Please make me a real woman, at least for tonight."

Naofumi just smiled at this, normally he was a shy type of person, but when he started to have sex he was another person altogether. A sexual beast, someone who was confident in what he was doing, willing to take what was offered to him without a second thought. So when he removed the rest of his and Ranka's clothing, he made it so that the Sword Hero was on her hands and knees and began to fuck her.

He made sure to go slow at first due to the fact that it was her first time, as he placed his member at her needy pussy and slowly pushed it into her filling her walls clamp around his dick and pleasure has she gassed out and excitement and pleasure until he reached her hymen. immediately moved his hands one over her breasts rubbing and squeezing a pinching get while the other one went right to her nob and massaging it stimulating her making her moan out in pleasure and upon the second she moaned out he pushed right into her taking her virginity and making her bite down on her pillow to not cry out in ecstasy due to the mixture of pain and pleasure she was feeling.

He slammed his member into the deepest depths of her pussy, where Renka felt like she was on the receiving end of nirvana, all thanks to the Shield Hero's six-inch cock. Naofumi had to admit that Renka's pussy was so tight and warm, each movement causing her to clamp down on him, creating an even tighter fleshy pocket for him to ram himself into.

After he was sure that she could no longer feel any of the pain from him taking her virginity he moves slow at first then started picking the pace up until he was slamming his member into the deepest depths of her pussy, where Renka felt like she was on the receiving end of nirvana, all thanks to the Shield Hero's six-inch cock. Naofumi had to admit that Renka's pussy was so tight and warm, each movement causing her to clamp down on him, creating an even tighter fleshy pocket for him to ram himself into.

With his hands on her ass, he was thrusted himself in her quite hard what kept on moving the small metal shield around until he thrusted into her let's send some of their fluids filling out what landed on the shield's gem. As a result, the green gem took in the substance, Naofumi's skill tree suddenly appearing to reveal something new.

Tantric Shield Unlocked.

Of course, he dismissed the screen before he even had a chance to look it over to see what it was, he was too caught up in the pleasure the act that he barely even noticed it. He didn't even notice that his own cock had gotten slightly bigger. As for the next hour, Renka and Naofumi fucked each other, until they become tired and Renka returned to her room.

( . Y . ) ( . Y . )

o0OoO0o

Kingdom of Melromarc, Castle Town, Castle, 6th of January 740, Morning:

It has been a few hours since Renka had sex with Naofumi and went to sleep in her room, now she was rudely awakened by someone knocking on her door. "God damn it, who is waking me up this early in the morning?" she muttered to herself as she saw that the sun out in the window didn't seem to have been up for that long, at least two or three hours. Knowing that she can't be rude back, she put up her 'Ren' voice and called out, "Who is it?"

'It better be important, or I might just kick whoever's ass it is for waking me up this goddamn early.' Renka thought to herself.

"Sorry to wake you so early Lord Ren, but his Majesty has asked me to wake all the Cardinal Heroes," explained the person who woke her up, "his Majesty has gathered the adventurers who'll be your companions."

"Give me a minute to get change." Renka called out, getting out of her bed, she felt sore from Naofumi fucking her a few hours ago.

Now that she was thinking clearly, she couldn't believe that she allowed herself to be fucked like that. She swore that she would never have sex with a man unless she truly trust them, but here she was allowing the first man that piques her interest to fuck her. Was this one of the side effects of being summoned showing within her, low inhibition? Making her do things that whilst she might think about, she would never do in her right frame of mind. She would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy it, but in the right frame of mind, she wouldn't have done it so easily.

As she looked at herself in the mirror and looking down at her clothes, she thought about the talk she had with Naofumi. Something she was shocked about, as once again, in her right frame of mind, she wouldn't have told a stranger so much. But what he told her was still going through her mind now, why should she hide who she really was in this world, not when she was summoned here as a hero or in her case heroine.

She could make a name for herself as a female and gain many favours, and if by some chance she was able to bring her family here, if they were still alive, they could have a great life. She would no longer need to hide who she was, about being used as some sex toy, nothing like that. She and her family could have much better lives than the one in her world. Whilst she was considering that she wasn't in her right mind about most of last night, it did help her to make a choice, one that without those things happening she might not do.

She would throw her old identity away and become the person she was meant to be, a strong heroine. Someone who would not allow a man to walk all over her, someone who would show that women were just as strong as men. Although, she would have to think about what she would do about her and Naofumi, was it a side effect of being summoned here or did she really mean to do those things last night. That would be something she would have to deal with overtime. She just hoped that she didn't end up pregnant from the unprotected sex, as that could really cause problems, especially when she was one of four people who meant to save this world.

That was something she would deal with should it happen, for now, she had to become the person she wanted to be. To start off with, throw her old clothes away and show the world who she really was. So calling out to the servant, she said, still in her 'Ren's' voice, "Are you still out there messenger?"

"I am Lord Ren." called back the servant.

"Is it possible if you could bring me some clothes before I face the king?" asked Renka.

"It is." the messenger informed the Sword Heroine.

"In that case, could you bring these clothes to me please…" and which case, Renka told the servant what sort of clothes she wanted. Shocking the servant, wondering why the Sword Hero would want such clothes when he was meant to be a male.

o0OoO0o

With Naofumi:

Whilst Renka was deciding that it was finally time to become who she really was, Naofumi was getting dressed after being rudely awakened too. He wasn't too happy to be called so early, and by his watch, it was about half seven in the damn morning. 'Who in the right damn minds wake up this early?' thought Naofumi as he finished getting dressed. Don't get him wrong, he understands the need to get strong as soon as possible to fight these waves, but to wake up this early? They must be out of their minds.

Now as he was dressed, he thought about the night before and the sex he had with Ren no Renka. That was a bit of a shock, he whilst he did think that Ren could get away as a woman if he dressed up as one, he never thought that Ren was really was one.

When he learned about her world and what it really was like, he couldn't believe that such a world existed. He wondered if the women didn't fight back as hard as they did in his world, would it be the same there. A world where women were nothing more than playthings for men to use whenever they want, where the only jobs that they could get were so-called women work?

He just hoped that this world wasn't as bad, sure he was trying to convince her to be herself, that's because he believed that people should be who they really were and not some fake person. It would be heart acre for the person and those around them, pretending to be someone you won't. But he could understand why Renka and her parents would do so, he was glad that not everyone in her would be mindless sheep thinking that the status quo was best. But he expected that men in Renka's world didn't want to give up their power.

After hearing the story of her world, it was no wonder that Renka was unsure about revealing who she really was. But Naofumi hoped that she would think about it, as he would like to continue what they started the night before, without needing to hide it.

Although he hoped that they would continue it, he wasn't sure that when Renka woke up this morning that she would want the same. He wasn't sure why she did what she did, although he wasn't going to complain, now that she slept on it, she might decide it was a bad thing that happened and wanting to forget about it all. He didn't see it as a mistake, but for someone who had to hide who she was and confused about what happened, he could see why someone would have second thoughts. He just hoped that it wasn't the case with Renka.

Thinking about the night before, he remembered seeing a message that appeared whilst he was fucking Renka. Wondering what it was, he opened his Shield Window to see that he had attained a new shield: Tantric Shield. When he equipped it, he saw that the new shield was round and had a picture of two people, gold and silver, intertwined with each other in a sexual way. The gold person was male, whilst the female was silver.

Then our hero looked at the stats that he just gained:

Tantric Shield

Equipment Bonus:

Sexual Stamina Up, Body Modification (small)

Special Effect(s):

Pheromones

It looked like that he didn't gain anything truly useful in this shield though, for battle, he wasn't sure what Body Modification did to him though. Although the Sexual Stamina Up sound like he would be able to last longer whilst having sex, something he was okay with. Although, he was confused about the pheromones, what use would that be for him? He preferred getting the women with his charm, not using some sort of drugs. Maybe he could use it for something else, he would have to try that out later on and see what happens.

Naofumi had to admit as he turned his shield back to his starter shield, his first shield was more or less useless for him. Whilst it might help him in bed, in battle it did nothing for him other than give him three in physical defence and two in magical defence. He just hoped that whatever his next shield was, it was better than this one.

Whatever the case, for now, he had to see the king and listen to whatever bullshit he has to say. The only good thing about this was that he would get some companions today to help him get stronger. So leaving his room, he followed one of the messengers there to see the king.

o0OoO0o

As he arrived at the throne room, he saw that only Itsuki and Motoyasu there, waiting to see the king. Standing there, he whispered to the other two heroes, "Do you know where Ren is? I thought that s, he would be here." Naofumi almost had to hit himself for almost revealing Renka's secret. He was glad that he caught himself before he did.

"No," whispered Motoyasu, "all we know was that Ren asked one of the servants to get him some new clothes for some reason."

This was strange, Naofumi had to wonder why would Renka would want to get some new clothes for, he hoped everything was alright. Naofumi then tried to stifle a yawn by pretending to be messing with his shield, before he looked around the room. He saw that there was a handful of nobles and kings advisors and minister. WIth other people standing to the side. Naofumi suspected that these people were the companions that the king was going to offer them.

"Morning noble heroes, I hope you had a most wonderful rest." the king greeted the three heroes, upon seeing that Ren wasn't there, he asked, "Where is Lord Ren?"

Before anyone could reply, the doors to the hall opened, where a female came in. Whilst the other didn't know who she was, Naofumi did, it would seem that Ren had decided to take his advice and become who she really meant to be, Renka Amaki not Ren Amaki. He just hoped that things didn't go pair shape for the Sword Hero for doing so.

"I'm sorry for being late your Majesty, but I had to get some clothes that fit me." Renka informed the king and everyone else. Unlike yesterday, she was now wearing a white tight tank top like top that showed off her breasts, with loose black trousers and white boots with gold and red markings.

"Who might you be young lady?" asked the king, "You are interrupting an important meeting."

"It is me Ren Amaki," Renka told the king shocking everyone there, "or should I say my real name is Renka Amaki."

Naofumi just smiled as the rest of the room seemed shocked, although Motoyasu looked like he wanted to ask her out at the next moment he could. "Why would you have to hide who you really are?"

"Because of my past life in my old world…" explained Renka as she went on to explain the basics of her world, not revealing as much as she did the night before, just how men treated women as lower class and couldn't do as much as men could and such. She only decided to reveal who she really was after Naofumi finding out about her the night before, where they talked about her past. It was after some talking about it, she decided to reveal who she really was.

"I see," King Aultcray said with a sad sigh, "that is a great shame that you had to be treated like that, if you were born here in Melromarc, you would be treated in high regard. As we treat women very well here. I hope your stay here in our world be better than the one in your world, Lady Renka."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Renka said with a smile as she stood next to Naofumi, who she gave a nod and a smile."

"Now back to business, as I told you last night, today you will embark on your journey to defeat the waves and as promised, we have gathered the greatest warriors that our country has to offer, they'll follow you on your journey and help you wherever they can: Swordsmen, archers, mages, healers, and many more options are available to you. They are all eager to make your acquaintance." At the king's prompt, the doors opened and twenty adventures poured in and presented themselves. Mages, scouts, warriors and the like. It was certainly a different bunch. It would seem that the people Naofumi saw earlier won't their companions, these people were.

Naofumi scanned the large group of over twenty adventurers. All of them appeared to be seasoned fighters, or at the very least had skill in fighting, and stood with confidence. Their equipment appeared to be decent, but without any other examples for comparison, he could only assume whether they were exceptional or not.

The swordsmen and swordswomen stood straight up. Some had their arms crossed and others had a hand on their hip. No matter how you looked at it, they all seemed to be ready to draw their swords at a moment's notice.

The archers and stealthy types stood lazily about, almost not paying attention to anything going on. But if you looked closely, all of them were searching the room for possible avenues of attack.

The mages were varied, with some mouthing chants to themselves silently and others simply standing there.

One woman, in particular, stood out to him due to her deep shoulder-length red hair. It didn't hurt that she was beyond beautiful, she could be the second-best after Renka. She and Naofumi locked eyes and she winked at him, causing him to blush. Whilst he might have experience with the fairer sex, when a beautiful girl winks at you, you too would blush or be smitten. He could see that Renka was giving the female a dirty look, one of jealousy.

But whilst this woman seemed to be beautiful, there was an old saying in his world, 'that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.' Not only that, but he had a gut feeling that he shouldn't trust this woman either. He wasn't sure why, but the feeling was there, so he would be careful around this woman should he ever face her.

Refocusing his attention on the remainder of the companions, the King continued his speech.

Naofumi remembered how this was perfect. There were just enough people here for each of them, to get three companions, with nobody left over.

"Now, I know you might be expecting that you would be picking your companions, but here, the future heroes of this country will decide who they want to serve." The king's minister told Hero's before turning to the adventurers, and saying, "Choose the one you wish to serve."

At first, Naofumi thought this was strange, that the adventurers got to choose, who they were going to follow themselves. But as Naofumi thought about it though, whilst it was surprising, it made some sense. Obviously they would favour their own citizens over a bunch of strangers.

One by one, the adventurers briskly crossed the room and gathered into groups in front of each of them. And after ten or so minutes, all of them had taken place in a line behind their Hero of choice. Motoyasu's group consistently entirely of pretty women apart for one male, Renka had a good variety of followers, and Itsuki had multiple for himself.

Naofumi sighed, knowing that none of them had chosen to stand by him. He turned around regardless just to affirm his suspicions and he was disappointed in the fact that he was correct.

Nobody wanted to help him. Not a single person.

This made no sense, why didn't anyone want to be with him? So he had to speak out and ask, "Wait a minute, Your Majesty!"

What the hell!? This was just too cruel! He wasn't in this world for more than twenty-four hours and he was already an outcast for some reason. 'Is this because I'm the Shield Hero. Are these adventurers looking for someone who will make their lives easy.' the Shield Hero thought to himself forlornly.

The king didn't seem quite sure how to respond.

"Did something happen?" Motoyasu delicately tried to break the tension, but it was too late. It felt like Naofumi was back in elementary school being excluded by the other kids during gym class all over again. This wasn't the kind of thing that's supposed to happen when you come to another world! Or that's what Naofumi believed anyway.

"Apparently, a rumour has been circulating around the castle that out of all the Heroes, the Shield Hero is the least acquainted with the ways of our world." the king informed them all.

"What!?" Naofumi asked in shock, how the hell did they know what he said the night before, did someone spy on them when the four were alone? And if they did spy on them, why wasn't there any rumours about Renka before now. If they knew that he lacked information about their world, why didn't know they know about his talk with Renka or worse knew that they had sex with each other. Was it possible that they did know, but they didn't want to reveal it for some reason? He would have to think more about this later on.

"In legend, it is written that the Heroes are the ones with a deep understanding of the inner workings of this world. If I am not mistaken, that does not apply to you?" the king asked Naofumi.

Motoyasu nudged Naofumi with his elbow. "Guess they were eavesdropping on our conversation last night, huh?"

Wait. Was he talking about the fact that he had never played a game like this before? That was the reason nobody wanted to join him? No, more importantly, what was with that bogus legend in the first place? Even if he wasn't as well informed like the others, Naofumi was still a Hero, wasn't he!? Who cared if shields sucked in a few shitty games? This wasn't a game, it was a reality!

Or that's Naofumi believed. Naofumi wasn't sure about the others, from what he could tell from their talks last night, the other heroes believed that they were sucked into a game. If each of them came from a different Japan, why not be sucked into a different world.

"In that case, I'll have to look for some companions by myself." Naofumi said with a sigh, not looking forward to this.

"It would seem so," admitted the king, as the other heroes just looked at him with pity and amusement.

Not wanting them to get away with this and not wanting to be alone on his quest to save this world, he asked. "Renka, can't you let me have one of your companions? You've got eight followers, can't you spare one or two?"

Renka's followers (men included) shrank back behind her like frightened children, while Renka herself simply sighed and scratched her head.

"Well, as I told you last night, I'm a loner and so I'm not really a fan of company." Renka reminder Naofumi, "So if any of them are willing to join you, I wouldn't have any problems with them joining you. In fact, I'll leave behind anybody that doesn't think they can keep up with me."

However, even in the face of such cold words from their lady, none of Renka's followers so much as moved a muscle. Renka give the Shield Hero an apologetic look at this, she did hope that someone from her group would join him to help, but it wasn't a case. She knew that she couldn't force them to help them, but she thought her words might change at least one of their minds.

"What about you, Motoyasu? Don't you think this is too cruel!?"

"Well…" well began the Spear Hero, as he looked at his group, which apart for one man, was full of women. It seemed he was genetically predisposed to having women flock to him no matter where he was.

Incidentally, Naofumi didn't realize until then that the ratio of men and women in the adventurers gathered for them was heavily weighted toward women. It was quite a mystery.

Naofumi had to admit, he was a bit jealous. Whilst he wasn't a lady's man as Motoyasu seemed to be, he did have some experience with the fairer sex back in his world, so he was hoping to get at least one cute girl to be his companions, in hopes to gain a love interest. Although with Renka on the scene, things might be different. But still, he had hoped that he could have at least one cute girl to join him.

It wasn't like anything was keeping him in his own world. Sure he had his brother, but he had his own life to lead. So whilst he and his friends would miss him, they would get over his disappearance over time. His parents hand wouldn't mind, in fact, they would be glad if he didn't return. They saw him a black sheep of the family, so they wouldn't miss him that much. So if he found someone he could connect with here, he was more than happy to stay here for good.

"It's… not my decision to make."

Itsuki informed Naofumi when he looked at him for help, it would seem he genuinely troubled by Naofumi's situation, but didn't want to reject the companions that had chosen him, either. Which in part he could understand.

"I do think it would be best if we each had five followers, but… forcing them into it against their will would be terrible for morale."

Everybody in the room nodded at Itsuki's reasonable words, even Naofumi had to admit he was right. So with a deep sigh, Naofumi said, "So I have to set off on my journey alone after all!?"

But all he had was a shield! How was Naofumi supposed to get any stronger without companions!?

"Actually, your Majesty, I would like to aid the Shield Hero!" A cheery voice rang throughout the throne room.

One of Motoyasu's subordinates raised her hand and volunteered to join his party.

"Oh? Are you sure?" asked Motoyasu, unhappy that one of his girls were going to follow another man that wasn't him.

"Yes." the red head said as she stood next to the Shield Hero. It was the same red head as before. Naofumi could admit that with her close up, he could admit she was just as pretty if not more so, but he still had the uneasy feeling that there was something up with her. He just wished he knew what it was. His gut was telling him to run as far away as he could from her, that she was trouble.

But the problem was that unless he was able to gain more companions here, he was stuck with her until he was able to find people he could trust. As he found out last night, he had shit attack points and without someone to help him fight, the only way he was able to fight was if he was able to find equipment with attack points. Even then, at a low level, the equipment would only have a few attack points, so he was stuck with the woman for a while.

"Are there any others willing to go to Naofumi's side?" asked the king.

…

Naofumi could almost see the tumbleweeds rolling. Not a single other person showed even the slightest inclination of volunteering. Naofumi had to wonder, was it so bad that he didn't know how the world worked? He was willing to learn, to do what was needed to learn and become strong so that he could help and save this world.

The king breathed a sigh of regret.

"Very well. Naofumi, from this point on you are to scout suitable companions on your own and bolster your ranks." the king informed the young Shield Hero, before he went on to say, "Because of these decidedly unique circumstances, I will make a special exception just this once and increase your aid for the month over that of the other Heroes."

"Y-Yes, Your Majesty!" Naofumi bowed, he was grateful for this, any help he could get was most welcomed. But there was something deep in his gut that something was amiss, that something didn't add up here. Sure it was a sound judgment. If nobody here wanted anything to do with him, then he just had to go out and find some people that did. But he had a strange feeling that it wouldn't be as easy as he would have liked.

"Then, I shall distribute the funds."

At the king's signal, we were presented with four heavy, jangling moneybags. As promised, mine was slightly larger than the others.

"I hereby bequeath nine hundred silver coins to Naofumi, and six hundred silver coins to the other Heroes. Use it to equip yourselves, or in Naofumi's hire more companions, and then begin your journey!"

"Yes your Majesty!" the three heroes and heroine said together as they bowed to the king.

And so, their audience with the king ended. Everybody filed out into the hall, and began their self-introductions. Renka even came up to him and informed the Shield Hero that she would like to meet up with him and talk in a few days, she wanted to leave up and think about a few things. Naofumi was happy more than happy to see her, so he said he would meet her again outside of the castle in a few days.

"I'm sure you already know, but I'm Naofumi Iwatani" Napfumi greeted the young lady once he talked to Renka, "It's great to be working with you." He reached out his hand for a handshake. He was unsure if that was the custom in this world as well, but he decided to go for it. He might not fully trust her, but that didn't mean he couldn't mean he could be rude. He hoped that over time he could learn to trust her, but if he was rude to her, it would be hard to do so.

She quickly grasped his hand in her own and shook it rather gently. 'She has soft hands for an adventurer.' Naofumi thought offhandedly. He found it strange, he expected a swordswoman's hands to be rougher than this, but it could be that she was new to adventuring and so have had much experience yet. So he put the thought at the back of his mind.

"My name is Myne Sophia. I hope we get along Shield Hero!" she said cheerfully, releasing his hand and standing behind him.

"So do I!" Naofumi told her in return, whilst he might not trust her, he was glad that he wasn't alone, that he would have someone to help him get stronger. He was happy that Myne was willing to help.

With the interdictions over with, Naofumi and Myne entered the two to allow the Shield Hero to explore. Although Naofumi had caught a glimpse of it through the window yesterday, seeing it up close really drilled in the fact that he had come to another world. Wooden sign boards hung over stone streets and storefronts, strange animals that he never seen pulling charts, people using magic in different ways, and delicious new smells wafted through the air. It really made quite an impression.

"Wow, this world is really amazing, I never thought that I would ever see anything of this. It's like I'm in some kind of dream, a dream I do not want to wake from." Naofumi said with an impressed tone before he looks at his companion Myne, "Hay Myne if you don't mind, could you show me some of the shops and inns around here? I want to get the feel of things, like how much a night at an inn will cost me, and where to get the cheapest items from."

Whilst he might not have played as much games as the others seemed to have done, he did remember the basics of the games he did play. In the games he remembered playing, it was quite common for new timers in a new world to go and pick up basic survival equipment and gear. But for Naofumi though, he knew that the money that he had was to get more companions. Seeing how he didn't know how much companions were going to set him back, he knew that he had to search for the cheapest of things for now.

"You see, before heading out to level up, I'm hoping to find a place with weapons and armour, then head over to a place where we can maybe get some medicine and some basic supplies, then head off to a few inns ." explained the Shielder, "As until I know how much companions are going to cost me, I want to get the cheapest as I can."

"Well I know of a store that sells weapons and armour, but the problem is that he is expensive." Myne explained thoughtfully, as she thought about the store she wanted to go to, "I know that you might want cheap weapons and armour, but when it comes down to these sort of things, cheap isn't always the best - as those types of weapons and armour can break easily. This person that I've heard of, whilst expensive, is the best person to buy from and offers discounts from time to time. So it's possible that we might meet him on a good day and he could give us a discount."

Naofumi had heard this before, but until now, he didn't put much stock into it. He thought that it was something that people say so that you would pay more for, but if someone who lives in a world where such things were important, it was best to take their word for it. So with a sigh, he thought to himself, 'This might put a dent in my money, but seeing that I only have a shield, I need to see if I can get myself a real weapon - and fast. As if I can't, I'll need to find shields and things to absorb into the shield in hopes to get stronger.'

"Well in that case lead me to this shop." Naofumi said with a sigh, "We have a few things we need to do before we can level up, and I would like to start it before the sun sets."

"Of course Lord Shield Hero," Myne said with a smile, "we're partners, aren't we? It's my place to help you to get stronger."

Naofumi nodded, knowing that she was right, so allowing her to guide him through the streets with a skip in her step, to the shop she knew of. As they went through the streets though, Naofumi had no idea what Myna really had planned for him, nor knew what darkness was awaiting him in his future. All he knew was this was meant to be the start of a brilliant adventure, one where Naofumi would find love and fun.

To be Continued! 

Author's Note: Now here ends the next chapter of Shield Demon, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and the first lemon of the story - if you enjoyed the chapter, please leave some feedback and let me know what you thought of it. This took longer than expected because of two reasons, first, this was the first ograinal chapter of the story and I hadn't written it before, the second reason, is because I couldn't find the words that I want to use and the mood kept going to write. I hope you like the first OC Shield of the story, yes a sex shield, and if possible I would like ideas for other sex shields and PLEASE NO joke shields or making them look like cocks or such.

As I said in the Prologue, these are shields I like to appear in the story, but I don't have name ideas for them nor the Requirements (although I do have one or two ideas, but I still welcome ideas,) Equipment Bonus, or Special Effect. I hope that you lot could help me out here, as these shields, other than a few others who can be used to counter and fight, will be some of the main ones that he'll use.

Alchemy

Blacksmithing

Cooking Upgrading Idea - Absorbing food to gain recipes

Jewelcrafting

Skinning/Dismantling

Enchanting

Leatherworking

Tailoring

Fishing

These last two I'm not too sure about, as I don't know how to work them into the story… so I would like your thoughts about this, I hope you can help.

Archaeology

Inscription

Now before you go, I would like to ask for your help, I'm planning to add more slaves and shields and I would like to ask for ideas.

For slaves I would like this information:

Name:

Age:

Birthday:

Race:

Birthplace:

Gender:

Height:

Skin Colour:

Eye Colour:

Hair Colour:

Hair Style:

Body Type:

Scars:

Piercing:

Now for the new shields, need this information:

Name:

How to get the new shields:

What the shields look like:

Stats Gained:

Equip Bonus:

Special Abilities:


	5. Chapter 4

_**Author's Note:**_ As you read this, I want you to think about something, what should I do about Malty S Melromarc a.k.a Bitch? I'm not sure about the light novel, but in the web novel, Bitch is the key to many problems that Naofumi faced after she becomes a slave. My plan was to make her into Naofumi's personal bitch, to show her what demon he had become because of her actions. But that was until my Beta Reader pointed out that Malty was the key player to many of the things that happened in the story until she was sent to the Pig King.

So I would like to know how should I handle her, should I make her Naofumi's personal bitch, or should I leave her like in the story until it was time to send her to the Pig King where instead she becomes Naofumi's plaything. If I change it so that Bitch becomes Naofumi's personal bitch, how should I handle the key points that she was part of? I hope that as you read this, you can come up with something that I am unable to at the moment.

_**Chapter Four… **_

_**The Journey Begins!**_

As they walked through the streets and alleyways, they came to a shop with a conspicuously huge sign, emblazoned with nothing but a sword.

"Here it is." Myne told the Shield Hero.

"Woah…"

Peeking in through the door, Naofumi could see that the walls were covered with weapons from floor to ceiling. Without a doubt, this was an honest-to-god weapon shop! And not only that, it looked like they also dealt in armour and useful tools for adventurers.

"Welcome!"

The shopkeeper bellowed out a greeting as they entered the store. His was an enormous black man, muscular frame was exactly what you'd expect from the owner of a weapon shop. But that was great! Naofumi would have been a little disappointed if he had ended up being some sleazy ball of grease. This really was another world, huh?

"So this is a weapon shop, huh?" asked Naofumi as he looked around the shop.

"Ah, a new customer! The fact that you came in means you must have an eye for quality!" said the shopkeeper, pleased to see someone can see good items when they saw it.

"Actually this girl here recommended you." Naofumi admitted as he pointed at Myne, who gave a quick wave to the shopkeeper.

"Well, thanks for that missy. My name's Erhard by the way." the shopkeeper said with a small bow.

"Oh, don't worry about it. Your shop is famous around these parts, that's all." Myne informed the shopkeeper.

"You flatter me! Anyway, this strangely dressed fellow is your boyfriend, I presume?" Erhard asked her.

That's right. To the people of this world, Naofumi's clothes must have seemed otherworldly. Anybody judging him by his appearance alone would think he was a total weirdo.

"You can't tell who he is just by looking?" asked Myne with a smile.

"Wait, you don't mean… he's a Hero!?" replied the shopkeeper, with a question of her own, as he stared at the Shield Hero for what seemed like an eternity, before saying, "He doesn't seem very reliable…"

'_Hey.'_ thought Naofumi, offended at that. Sure he wasn't the strongest person out there, but he wasn't the weakest either. Although he had to admit that he probably did look pretty unreliable to those in this world. But that's why I wanted to get stronger!

"If you have something to say, say it." said Erhard. "I'm just saying if you don't load yourself up with quality equipment nobody will take you seriously."

"That's probably true…" admitted Naofumi.

"From the looks of you, I'd say… you must be the failure of the Heroes, right?" said the black man.

Urk. Naofumi could feel his cheek twitching. Why did rumours about him seem to spread so fast? Well, whatever. He couldn't let it get him down.

"I'm the Shield Hero, Iwatani Naofumi." Naofumi told Erhard, "I've come here in the hopes to get a weapon and some equipment. So that not only can I fit in this new world, but to protect myself from the dangerous situations that I'll be facing from here on out… so I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other."

Naofumi figured it would be best to introduce himself properly and clear up any misunderstandings.

"Naofumi, huh? Well, if you're already planning on becoming a repeat customer, then I think we'll get along just fine. Nice to meet you!" the shopkeeper told him happily.

'_Geez, this guy was energetic.'_ Naofumi thought to himself, before saying, "That all depends on how things go, but yeh, as long things go well I'm planning to be a repeat customer."

"Hey, mister. Don't you have any good equipment on sale?" Myne asked as she pouted a little and batted her eyes at the shopkeeper.

"What's your budget and your level?" asked Erhard.

"Hmm, let's see…" Myne said thoughtfully as she looked Naofumi over like she was appraising his value.

"I'd say… around two hundred and fifty silver coins, or thereabouts and he's level one." Myne informed the black man.

Two hundred and fifty of his nine hundred silver coins? He knew that Myne warned him that the armour was going to be expensive, but he didn't know it would be this expensive. Naofumi was hoping that Myne was figuring in the cost of recruiting allies, paying for lodgings and the rest of the things that they needed. As he feared if things ended up costing too much, they might be forced to buy second-hand equipment.

"Understood! Wait there for a moment." said Erhard.

The shopkeeper left the counter and wandered around a bit, before finally returning with a pile of weapons from various sections of the shop.

"So, kiddo. Do you have a preference for any particular weapon type?" asked Erhard.

"Not really." admitted Naofumi, never used a weapon before, "I've never actually held a real weapon before in my life."

"In that case, I'd recommend a sword made for novices." Erhard informed him. He lined up a selection of swords on the counter in front of the Shield Hero.

"All of these come with a coating of Bloodclean already applied." the black man informed the young hero.

"Bloodclean?" asked Naofumi, not knowing what it was.

"It's a special coating that makes blood and gore slide right off the blade, to preserve cutting ability." explained Erhard.

"Woah…" Naofumi was amazed that there was such a thing, but it would be very useful to have. Now that he mentioned it, Naofumi was pretty sure that he'd heard something in his world about blades wearing down after being used to cut meat a lot. So then, basically he was saying these were all swords that never go dull? Amazing…

"From least to most expensive, we've got iron, magic iron, magic steel, and mithril. You might think they're a bit pricey, but I can guarantee their performance." Erhard told the young man.

'_Interesting. Did the toughness of the weapon vary by material?'_ Naofumi thought to himself.

"We've got even better weapons in stock, of course, but these are the ones that fit your budget and level." Erhard explained politely.

Normally in console games, the shops in the first town were full of crap items, but there seemed to be an amazing assortment of products here. This world really was like an online game, wasn't it?

Wait, no, what was he thinking? This wasn't a game, it was reality. It made perfect sense that a weapon shop in the capital of a major country would be well-stocked.

"Maybe… the iron sword?" Naofumi asked, unsure what sword to use.

He gingerly wrapped his fingers around the hilt and picked it up. There was a hefty weight to it like you'd expect from a weapon. Compared to his shield, it was surprisingly heavy. He had to wonder if he really is able to fight monsters with this…

CRACK!

"Ow!"

Suddenly, Naofumi felt a shock like he had been struck by lightning, and the sword snapped out of his hands.

"Oh?"

The shopkeeper and Myne were looking back and forth between him and the sword with looks of wonder on their faces.

"What happened?" asked Myne.

Naofumi bent over and picked up the sword again. It seemed perfectly normal. So then, what was that before? Was it just a fluke?

CRACK!

"Ouch!" He yelped in pain, "What the, what's going on here?"

What the hell? Was the shopkeeper playing a prank or something on him? Naofumi glared at Erhard, but he just shook his head and shrugged. He was clearly just as confused as Naofumi was. Maybe Myne knew what was going on? Naofumi couldn't imagine that she was responsible for this, but she was the only other one here…

"Didn't it just fly out of your hands on its own?" asked Erhard.

Naofumi tried to pick another sword up, but the same thing happened. As Naofumi stared at his palms in disbelief. As he did, a message in bold red writing appeared in his field of vision.

_**Legendary Weapon Rule Violation: Contact With Unauthorized Weapon**_

'_Wait, what?'_ Naofumi thought confused, he had no idea what the hell was going on. So quickly pulling up the Help menu and consulted the user's manual. He hoped that something in there about… aha!

_**A Hero can't fight with anything other than the legendary weapon in his possession.**_

'_Seriously!?' _Naofumi thought in disbelieve, _'I can't even use anything to fight except my shield!? What kind of shitty system is this?'_

"Umm… sorry, but apparently this shield is the only weapon I'm allowed to have." Naofumi raised my head and smiled bitterly.

"Really? Could I have a look at it?" asked the shopkeeper.

Since Naofumi couldn't take the shield off, he held out his entire shield arm for the shopkeeper. Naofumi felt a little silly, but there was no way around it. As he put his shield out, the black man muttered something under his breath, and a small ball of light flew toward Naofumi's shield and burst apart.

"Hmm. How does that work?" Erhard asked mainly to himself as he examined the shield, after a few seconds of doing so, he said, "At first glance, it's just a normal small shield. Are you able to take this shield off?"

"No, although I'm able to move it around my body." Naofumi informed the storekeeper.

"Hmm, interesting," Erhard said thoughtfully, before he told the young hero, "I have to say that there's something strange about it…"

"Ah, how can you tell?" asked Naofumi. He was painfully aware that it was just a small shield. Even if the status magic said so. (Though, it did have the designation "Legendary Weapon" attached.)

"See this jewel fixed in the centre here?" asked Erhard as he pointed at the jewel, "I can feel powerful energy radiating from it. I tried examining it with appraisal magic, but I wasn't able to see much. Even though there shouldn't be a type of magic I can't identify…" The shopkeeper gazed at him and thoughtfully stroked his trademark beard. "It really is interesting… ahem. Anyway, if weapons are out, let's see about getting you some protective gear."

"Yeah, okay. That sounds good." said Naofumi, even if he can't use a weapon, he still had a few ideas gaining attack power. But first he should get some armour, so it would be harder for someone to defeat him.

"Let's see… you already have a shield so there's no need to worry about that." Erhard told him, "And since there's no point in splitting your budget between weapons and armour anymore, you should be able to afford something pretty nice."

"Let's see… you already have a shield so there's no need to worry about that -" Erhard began, but before he could say more, the blacksmith was cut off by Naofumi.

"Actually, I would like to see more of your shields," explained the young Shield Hero, as he walked over to one of the shields on display, "whilst I might not be high enough in my levels, but I want to see what shield are out there and what I can get once I get stronger."

"Understandable." said the blacksmith, he had seen many people who have done the same thing, looking at his gear to see what stats they needed to get before they were able to get better gear.

Now as Naofumi picked up one of the shields and touched it, hoping that what the other Heroes told him was true. Thankfully it was true, as the moment that he touched an Iron Shield, a notice appeared in front of him.

_**Weapon Copy Activated!**_

You have unlocked the Iron Shield

You have unlocked the Red Iron Shield.

You have unlocked the Blue Iron Shield.

You have unlocked the Green Iron Shield.

There were a few other colours for the Iron Shield. He didn't understand why there were different coloured shields, but then again, he knew that there were some people who like to colour their weapons and equipment. He never understood it himself, but he believed that its each to their own, but he wouldn't be using this.

'_So it did work,'_ Naofumi thought, _'I'll check this out later.' _He knew that to some it would be like he was stealing the shield, but he didn't really think it like that. He thought it was like he was only copying the shields, he wasn't taking them from the shops so that the shopkeeper wasn't able to sell them. The reason he didn't want to show this skill off, was that the shopkeeper wouldn't think it like that and want him to pay or thought he was stealing from him. He might not even give him a discount. So Naofumi thought it was best to keep it to himself. It's not like he owed the man anything.

So pretending to check each shield, Naofumi copied various shields, such as the Magic Silver Shield, Heavy Shield, Iron Shell Shield, Magic Shield, and so on…

When he got the Iron Shell Shield, he had to wonder what was the difference between the Iron Shield and Iron Shell Shield? Magic Shield seems to be a shield that can convert magical power into the shield. Naofumi heard of this before, but is the shield an item that is considered a weapon after all? It's naturally being sold at a weapon store. Naofumi wasn't complaining since he was copying the shields. The Shield Hero found that some of these shields had colour variations… it seems people that the people of this world love to alter the colour of their equipment. Naofumi had to question the usefulness of such a system.

Just then he picked up a shield that got his interest, it was called the Iron Meteorite Shield, it was a four-foot black shield with what looked like a shooting star on it. It gave off a strange atmosphere, a hidden power. Even though the shield stats was ten in defence, Naofumi could tell there was more to this shield than meets the eye.

_**Iron Meteorite Shield.**_

_Requirements:_

Level 20.

_Equip Bonus:_

Meteor Shield.

"What can you tell me about this shield?" asked Naofumi, "Whilst I can't use it until I'm level twenty and it only has ten defence power, I can tell there's more to this shield. It has an ability called Meteor Shield."

"It's a prototype of the iron meteorite series, it along with a few other items are display products from Zeltbull." the old man informed him.

"So why do you have it?" asked Naofumi.

"Part of a deal that I and a few others have with Zeltbull," explained Erhard, "we display these items for him, giving him feedback and such from the items and we get a discount from some of his other products. To be honest, I have no idea what the ability is, I wasn't told."

Naofumi nodded at this, whilst he was at college they were taught that sometimes if you want to get things from another company for a good price, you would have to make deals with them. It would seem that this was one such deal. It would be interesting to see what this ability was once he got to the high enough level to use it.

"Well, there are a few interesting shields I might buy once I have the money and level to do so," Naofumi lied to the man, "Now if you don't mind, do you have any decent armour for someone at level one?"

"Yeah, this armour here." Erhard told him as he walked over to a display dummy, it was a chain mail, "This is a nice set of entry-level chain mail, it allows you some defence whilst allowing you to move with ease.

Naofumi walked over to the armour he had recommended and placed his hand on it. The countless chain links jangled and swayed. He wondered what it's defensive abilities were like when a screen popped up…

_Chain Mail - Level 1:_

_Stats: _

Up +5

+5

_Special Ability:_

Slash Resist 5%

_Slots:_

Two Empty Slots.

'_Hmm, not too bad for a starting armour.'_ Naofumi thought to himself, sure he would have liked something better, but he was only level one. So he couldn't expect much in stats for such a low level. He did remember for his time in gaming that this type of defence was better than most, as normally a person would be lucky to get something over three points in defence in their starting armour.

"How much does it cost?" Myne addressed the shopkeeper.

"For you? As a hero discount, I'll knock it down to a hundred and twenty silver coins." Erhard told the young lady.

"Are you kidding me?" Naofumi asked in shock at the cost, "Sure I don't know much about the money in this world, but even I can tell that is a little too much."

"For a normal piece of armour you would be right," admitted the older man, "but this isn't a normal piece of armour. No, this armour has slots in it."

"What's so special about these slots?" asked Naofumi. Sure he expected it was the same in his world, you would find some sort of gem with powers in it and if you place it in armour, it would power up the armour. But he wanted to make sure it was the same here.

"There are magical gems that can give you extra abilities," explained the blacksmith, "like giving you the ability to lockpick if you couldn't before, or you might have element defence or attack added if you add the right gem to the armour or weapon. But the thing is, to add gems to the armour or weapon, you need slots, you just can't add them. Slots are specially made so that you can add these gems, and no normal slots can be used, magic and special martial are used so the gems could be used."

Here Naofumi nodded in understanding, so slots were just like in the games back in his world. But, unlike in his world where you don't need anything special for slots, here, you need special made slots where magic and special martial are needed. So he could understand why the cost was more than normal, as whilst magic could be free, he had no idea how much this special martial cost nor the time it takes to make the slots in the items.

"How much for buybacks?" Myne asked, whilst the Shield Hero was thinking this over.

"Hmm? Well, I guess if you brought it back in good shape, I'd be willing to pay a hundred silver coins for it." explained Erhard.

"What's going on?" asked Naofumi, as his mind got back to the present.

"Oh, Sir Shield Hero. I was just asking him how much we could make back on this armour once you outgrow it." explained Myne.

Naofumi found it strange, why would Myne call him Shield Hero, when before leaving the castle, she was willing to call the other heroes by their names. Maybe it was that damn rumour that was going around, maybe it was making her uneasy calling him by his name. He'll have to talk to her about this later on about it, with luck he can get her to call him by his name later on.

Either way, what she was doing made a lot of sense. Right now he was only level one, but as he grew stronger it stood to reason that he would be able to equip more powerful equipment as well. This chain mail was just the best thing he could equip at the moment for his level.

"Okay, I'll take it." Naofumi told the storekeeper, but then a thought came to him. Remembering the icon that popped up, he remembered about the games he played before, where other than body armour give them stats too. Maybe if he can't use weapons, he could use his martial arts to defend himself and maybe get gear to help him get offence strength. So he asked, "I was wondering, do you have some gloves and boots to go with this armour?"

"Yeah I believe I do, I'll be back in a few minutes with them." Erhard informed the Shield Hero as he went to the backroom of the shop and come back a few minutes later with boots and fingerless chain gloves.

With these items in front of them, he placed his hand on the boots first, where the icon popped up again:

_Chain Boots - Level 1:_

_Stats:_

Up +5

Agility Up +2

Speed Up 5%

After this, he placed his hand on the gloves next, and again the icon popped up:

_Chain Gloves - Level 1:_

_Stats:_

Defence Up +4

+3

_Special Ability:_

Critical Chance 3%

Naofumi couldn't help but to opp with joy in seeing that his attack going up. Sure it wasn't by much and there were no slots to them, but still, it was something. At least he knew that if he wanted to gain more attack up, he would have to find equipment that had attack power. "I'll take them." Naofumi told the shopkeeper.

"Wonderful! So with the Chain Mail, that'll be one hundred and sixty silver coins and I'll even throw in the innerwear for free!"

The shopkeeper's generosity rendered Naofumi speechless. With a smile, Naofumi handed over the one hundred and sixty silver coins for the items. Sure it cost him more than he had hoped for, but he didn't know the cost was in the world so it could have been cheap and b, one of his items give him extra attack points - something he really needed. Sure it wasn't much, but it was something and it was something he was willing to pay more for. When he had more time and money, he would go out and look for more equipment with attack points.

"Would you like to wear it out?" asked Erhard.

"Sure." Naofumi informed the man, not seeing why he shouldn't wear it now. In fact, seeing that he was going out to level out soon, it was best to do so now.

"Okay then, right this way." Erhard told him as Naofumi was guided to a room at the back of the shop, where he changed into the innerwear and then his armour. Naofumi put my original clothes into a bag that Erhard gave him.

"Gahaha, it's not much, but you definitely look a little sturdier now!" Erhard said with a smirk.

"Thank… you?" Naofumi thanked the man, unsure how to comment to that, he was pretty sure that was supposed to be a compliment. But he couldn't tell with him, so he took it as one either way.

"Well then, Sir Shield Hero. Shall we head out into the field?" asked Myne.

"Not right now no," Naofumi informed the red head thoughtfully, "this was just the first stop of the day, seeing how I needed to get some armour, now I need to get some potions and a few other things. I also want to get some materials, as the Shield has the ability to absorb minerals and other things into it, where it can create new shields. So I was hoping to unlock some more shields, ones that give me some attack points. So I want to head to the Alchemy Shop… I believe that's what you call it here in this kind of era, then maybe if there's a church around I'll go there next to see if I can get some holy water if I can get some."

"You would be able to get some holy water, most start from around five silver coins to one gold coin," explained Myne, "if you want the best holy water, then you would need the high-quality holy water worth one gold coin."

"And how much is one gold coin?" asked Naofumi.

"One gold coin equals one hundred silver coins." Myne informed the Shielder.

'_Damn,'_ the young man thought to himself, with a sigh, _'if I want the best I need the high-quality holy water. But I can't afford it right now.'_

"Fine, I get it another day. Not like I need it right now." Naofumi said with a sigh.

"Anyway, let me show you to the Alchemist Store." said Myne, but thought to herself, 'Thank god, that was a close one.' She didn't want them to go, as if they did, there might have been someone who would reveal who she really was and she didn't want that right now.

The first thing he bought at the Alchemist Store was a set of basic tools in potion making, which he promptly fed to his shield. After a few items, a new shield appeared: the Alchemy Shield. It was shaped like a large old looking book, with a Mortar and Pestle on the front. It unlocked the Alchemist series, which would presumably grant similar skills.

_**The Alchemy Shield… **_

_Equipment Bonus: _

Pharmacy Creation. (Unmastered.)

Potion Correction- Small. (Unmastered.)

_Special Effect: _

Keeps a list of Recipes of known potions created.

Medicine: Area of Effect - Small

Looking around the Alchemy Shield symbol, he saw that there were other shields connected to this one, a series of shields. Each of the linking shields would make the series stronger. Two such shields were _**Petit Medicine Shield **_and _**Petit Poison Shield**_, one would raise medicine's effects, whilst the other shield would give small resistance in poison

When he saw Equip Bonus and Special Abilities, he remembered that this wasn't the first time that he saw these he saw them on the _**Tantric Shield**_. This got him interested and so he checked his Help Menu to learn more about it:

_**Weapon Transformation and Mastery:**_

Weapon Transformation refers to your Legendary Weapon's ability to change form.

To activate this transformation, simply hold your hand over it, and think of the name of the weapon you wish to use.

Using weapons increases their mastery, and fully mastered weapons grant permanent bonuses.

The shield can be mastered by either using its skills or just having it equipped for a certain amount of time.

_**Equip Bonus:**_

Equip Bonus refers to the special abilities conferred by equipping different weapons.

For example, when a weapon with the Equip Bonus "Air Strike Bash" is equipped, the skill "Air Strike Bash" can be used.

Likewise, a weapon with the Equip Bonus "Attack +3" will have three points added onto its attack score.

_**Special Effect:**_

An exclusive effect that will only be used when equipped with a specific weapon.

The effect won't be usable by other weapons even if its true powers have been unsealed. Therefore, one will need to fit a specific weapon into a slot for this special ability to take effect.

Naofumi found it interesting, with the equip bonuses, when you first got the skill, you would only be able to use it with that shield for a while. But once you master it, either by using the skills or having it equipped for a certain amount of time. The young Shield Hero had to wonder which of these methods would master the shield the fastest, he also wondered if there are other ways to master the shields faster, he would have to look into this later on.

After buying another basic Alchemy Tools, they also brought a few herbs, which when fed to the shield unlocked another shield useful shield, Leaf Shield. It had a Gathering Correction Skill Lv 1, form his knowledge from the games back home, this skill should make any herbs that he picks up into better quality herbs.

Naofumi noticed that the skill had Lv 1 next to it, so he figured that it could be levelled up and increase in power somehow. Naofumi believed that if there was such a skill for Herb Gathering, there had to be one for Mineral Gathering too. If he was able to get both of these, it would make his life much easier. As he could find low-level herbs and minerals and with this ability, increase them to good or legendary status increasing how much money he would make from them and how potent they were.

After leaving getting some of their medical needs, Naofumi went to a general store in the hope of getting some wooden spikes. He believed that if he couldn't use weapons, he would try and set up another way to fight, by setting up traps or throwing enemies into the spikes. Whilst in the store, he brought two other things that created two new useful skills, nails and magnifying glass: Spiked Iron Shield and Appraisal Shield.

_**Spiked Iron Shield… **_

_Requirements:_

Level 5.

_Equipment Bonus: _

Attack: 2 (Unmastered.)

Defence: 4 (Unmastered.)

_Special Effect: _

Counter Attack

When Naofumi saw this, he was glad that he had more attack points to come, but the problem was that he had to wait until he was level five. Whilst it wasn't too bad, he wished he had it sooner, as he believed it would help him. Oh well, he just had to work harder to get to level five. The shield was a round medium-sized Iron shield, with two-inch spikes covering the shield.

_**Appraisal Shield - Lv 1… **_

_Equipment Bonus: _

5% Change of Rare Item Drop on Appraised Monsters (Unmastered.)

Plus 10% Defence against Appraised Monsters (Unmastered.)

Plus 10% magical Defence against Appraised Magical Monsters (Unmastered.)

Plus 5% Attack against Appraised Monsters (Unmastered.)

Plus 5% Magical Attack against Appraised Monsters (Unmastered.)

_Special Effect: _

Appraisal

This one was like the Alchemy Shield, where it was in the form of a book, it was a dark red book with a magnifying glass on the front of it. Naofumi knew that at first it wasn't that strong as a shield, but knew that once he gets the monsters appraised his attack and defence would go up a bit. Sure not but much, but at least he would get more attack power when facing the same monsters over and over again. Although Naofumi didn't think it would be that easy, in some of the games that he knew back in his world, you would have to appraise so many monsters before you would get the bonus attack and defence. He knew he would have to look into this once he faced his first monster here to see if it was true here.

Whilst the other shields that he gained had some good effects, the last two shields were better, as they had attack points to them. Something he really needed if he was going to survive in this world. Then again, knowing his luck, even with this new attack points, it wasn't going to be that easy. Either way, with his shopping down for the day though, spending about twenty silver coins, Naofumi decided that it was time to level up.

As he went to the fields with Myne, he was shocked to see that she seemed to be worried about something. When he asked about it though, Myne told him it was nothing. Whilst he let it go for now, it didn't settle the uneasy feeling he had in his gut about her. His gut was telling him that she didn't want him to become stronger, but he couldn't figure out why. Why would someone want another person staying weak? None of this made sense, so he decided to leave it for now, so that he could level up. He would figure it out, later on, for now he needs to level up.

_**o0OoO0o**_

Once Naofumi and Myne were outside of Castle Town, this was Naofumi first sight of outside the town, there were grassy plains extended far as the eye could see. There was a stone road (of sorts) leading off into the distance, but aside from that, there wasn't so much as a trace of human civilization to be found.

The last time Naofumi had seen anything like this, was when he went on a trip to Hokkaido, but even that paled in comparison to this endless blue sky, this sea of green that stretched all the way to the horizon. The only thing that kept him from running around and frolicking to his heart's content was the knowledge that if anybody saw him doing it, his stock as a hero would plummet even further than it already had.

"Just a minute, Sir Shield Hero." Myne called out to the young Shield Hero, "This area is home to many weak monsters. We should use this as an opportunity to warm up before things get tougher."

"Sounds good to me! This'll be my first time in a real fight, so let's do our best!" Naofumi told her, he also wanted to see what his strength was like against something weak. If he wasn't able to defeat them easily, he would level up before facing something tougher, as he really didn't want to die a few days of coming to this world. Then a thought occurred to him, so he asked Myne, "And please, call me Naofumi, it feels strange you calling me Naofumi."

"Yes. Please do your best." Myne informed Naofumi, "And I'll try to use your name Sir Shield Hero." Naofumi hoped that she would, as it would get awkward will fast if she couldn't.

"Wait. Are you saying you're not going to help?" Naofumi suddenly, wondering why she would do this.

"I will." Myne told him, "But before that, I thought it would be good if we figure out how strong you are on your own. The monsters around here are the weakest in the kingdom, so you should be fine around here."

"Oh… I guess that makes sense." Naofumi admitted.

As Naofumi thought about it, Myne was probably already fairly experienced, as the king said, he was giving the heroes companions who were the best that his kingdom had. So she would be a few levels ahead of him, so she would more than likely be able to deal with them with ease. Him on the other hand, he had no idea what he was even capable of. If she thought the monsters here were safe for me to start with, he would trust her judgment. If they were weak, he could see how the extra three attack points would affect his fighting ability.

They plodded through the plains for a while, until eventually, they stumbled across a conspicuously orange balloon-like… something.

"Ah, there's one now. An Orange Balloon, by the looks of it. Be careful, Sir Shield Hero… whilst it's the weakest here, they attack in groups and are extremely aggressive." Myne told the hero.

What was with that naming sense? It looked like an orange balloon, so it was called an Orange Balloon? Naofumi almost felt sorry for the thing.

"Grah!"

Naofumi could practically feel the hostility emanating from its ferocious growls and two vicious little eyes. The instant it noticed his presence, it charged right at him. As it did, five other Orange Balloons appeared and joined in the fight.

"Good luck, Sir Shield Hero!" Myne wished him luck.

"Alright!" Naofumi told her.

The first thing that Naofumi did was to summon his _**Appraisal Shield**_, so that he could appraise them and find their stats. It was a pain, the shield was a book and only had low stats, two in defence. But if he wanted to master the shield bonus skills so that he could use them whenever he wanted, he would have to use it often for now.

"_**Appraisal!"**_ Naofumi called out as he threw the monsters off him, once he called the ability out, a red magnifying glass came out of the shield and hit the monsters. As it did, a screen appeared:

_**Orange Balloons… **_

Level:

2 - 4

HP:

10 - 20

Attack:

1 - 3

defence:

4 - 6

They were basic stats, but for a shield that was at level one, but still whilst the attack wouldn't be a problem for him, the defence would be. As he only had four points in attack, so it would be hard for him to defeat these guys without a weapon. Sure he got a plan, but he wanted to see how long it would take him to defeat them with his fests, that way he could plan how to train himself.

In the first few moments, he realized that while he knew that he was going to have problems in defeating them, he didn't realize it would be this hard. The damn things were faster than he expected, he wasn't able to catch one to pin them down so he could hit them. "Dammit, this is harder than I first thought!" Naofumi grunted with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. "Whilst these things don't hurt at all, they're too fast for me to catch them!"

Naofumi thought this would be his chance to shine, showing them he was more than the Shield and what the rumours said about him. But it wasn't to be, as he tried to catch his breath while several balloons decided to gnaw on his limbs. He didn't feel anything besides a small pressure on his body, so he completely ignored them. His HP wasn't decreasing either thanks to his defences, so they were effectively harmless to him. It almost felt like a faint barrier was being emitted by his shield and protecting him.

"Here take this, it'll help with regaining your stamina." Myne told the Shield Hero as she stood under a tree nearby, as she gave him what looked like a potion.

Taking it, Naofumi drank the potion and indeed his stamina seemed to return to him, as he began to breathe normally again. In thanks, he said, "Thanks Myne I needed that."

"No problem Sir Shield Hero." Myne waved it off before she went on to say, "Listen, whilst your defence stat is high so that none of the low levelled monsters are unable to hurt you, with the way you are fighting you won't be able to do much." Here Naofumi went red in shame at this, not liking that he wasn't able to capture one of the weakest of the monsters here. But Myne seemed to just smile at this, as instead, she said, "Because of this, they make perfect practice targets. You need to learn to anticipate their attacks and defend yourself from them. Focus less on killing them and more on not getting hit." Myne instructed.

Nodding his head, Naofumi got back to work first by throwing the attached balloons off of himself. Here he did as instructed and anticipate their attacks and defend himself. It reminded Naofumi of his training back in his world when he was doing his martial arts training when he had to predict his opponent's movement, he felt foolish in forgetting something so simple, he was embarrassed at the fact. Either way, with them being so fast and that they bounced around a lot, it took about half an hour to be able to evade the attacks, at which point he was able to get his first few hits in on one of the damn Orange Balloons.

*smash*

*boing*

The spot he hit popped back up as if nothing had happened. It was surprisingly elastic! Might have been one of its special abilities, one that was preventing him from using his fest to defeat it. He had been sure it would burst immediately… especially with the extra attack points that he gained. They were after all the weakest of the monsters, they only had between four to six points in defence. It had to be some sort of ability that was preventing him from popping them like the balloons that they were.

It took him a few moments before he realized something, they were leather balloon enemies, meaning that for normal adventurers who can use weapons they would have an easier time than someone who had to use blunt force. It's like basically hitting a volleyball, it will just bounce back until he wears them out or until he hits it hard enough.

The Orange Balloon snarled and snapped its teeth at him as the other Orange Balloon attack him.

"Woah!"

*clang*

It made a solid-sounding noise, but he ignored it. Even though it and the other Orange Balloons were gnawing on different parts of his body, although they won't having any effect at all on him.

He looked at Myne without saying anything.

"You can do it!" she told him.

'_Can I though?' _thought Naofumi he wasn't sure that he could. Whilst he was able to evade most of the attacks and wasn't taking any damage if he was hit, wasn't dealing any either. He hadn't set up any of his traps yet, as he wanted to see if he was able to defeat them without any traps and such. He knew that he had to change his strategy.

"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"

So instead of trying to hit them with his shield, he started to use his martial arts skills and pummeled the Orange Balloons with his fists and feet hoping to hit their weak points. He knew that he had to put in some strength into his hits, in the hopes to get a critical hit. Then after three minutes, there was a pop. At long last, one of the damn things finally split open and after a short while later, all six were done for.

"Haa… haa… haa…"

He heard a ping, and a message saying he had gained one EXP appeared.

'_Damn it, all that damn work and all I got was six damn EXP for the six of them.' _Naofumi thought darkly, he couldn't believe it, all that work and nothing to show for it…

It didn't bode well. For these guys to be the weakest of all the monsters in this world, they were way tougher than Naofumi first thought they would be. Naofumi knew that there was a limit to what he could do with his bare hands, but he knew that he couldn't use any normal weapons. If these balloon creatures were the weakest of the monsters here, then he had to find not only other ways to get attack points but also other ways to fight and defeat these monsters.

"Good job, Sir Shield Hero." Myne was clapping, but Naofumi realized it seemed a little forced.

Just then, Naofumi noticed the sound of footsteps somewhere in the distance slowly growing louder. He turned his head to see what it was and saw Renka and her followers trotting along at a brisk pace. He briefly considered calling out a greeting, but Naofumi didn't have the nerve to disturb people running with such serious expressions.

Suddenly, five Orange Balloons appeared in front of them.

*slash*

Without hesitation, Renka drew an arc with her sword, popping them one after the other.

'_She took them all out with one strike!?' _Naofumi thought to himself in shock,_ 'so that's the major difference between my attack power and hers!?'_

"…"

Myne waved her hand in front of Naofumi's face to snap him out of his daze. "Don't worry about it so much. Every Hero has their own way of fighting, that's all."

"…Thanks, Myne." Naofumi thanked her, sure he wasn't sure if he really could trust her, but he was thankful for her words just then.

'_That's right,'_ thought Naofumi, _'I had just been used as a chew toy for a few minutes without getting so much as a scratch. My defence score is actually pretty high, I just have to find another way to fight. Ways that don't need the conventional kind of weapons, maybe I could use potions like in some of the games back in my world somehow. Or I can look into magic, whilst not high, I do have a decent magical attack points, so I could try my hand in using magical attack. I'll need to look into this later.'_

With his spirits rising a bit and a plan for the future, Naofumi stooped down and picked up the remains of the Orange Balloon that he defeated.

Naofumi slowly brought the balloon scraps towards his shield. The instant he touched them together, like many other times that day, a faint light glimmered and the orange, rubbery material was sucked into the shield's jewel.

_Orange Balloon's Balloon Scraps Acquired_

Naofumi noticed that the Weapon Book icon had lit up. As he opened it up, he saw that one of the shield icons had lit up, this one was the 'Orange Small Shield.'. It was still locked, though - apparently he needed to gather more materials before he could actually use it.

After finding this, he went into the bestiary icon to see about the Orange Balloons, hoping to find more info about them and how to defeat them. Sadly, it was as he expected there wasn't much about them. He wasn't too surprised to be honest, he expected that once the _**Appraisal Shield **_had gotten to a higher level, more info would come. Either that, or he had to wait for the appraisal icon for the monster to get to 100%. It was like he expected, before he could gain the Equipment Bonus, he would first have to get the appraisal bar for that monster to 100%. At the moment, after defeating the six balloons, it was at 12%, he had a lot of work to do before he could gain the bonus from the _**Appraisal Shield**_.

Sadly for now, he had other problems to deal with, levelling up and mastering some of his shields so that he could gain the bonuses from them.

Now it was time to see if his plan to set up traps would work, as if he was able to set up spike traps and throw the balloons into them and defeating them by doing so, he could work on other traps to defeat other monsters. Oh, he knew that he couldn't do it for all monsters, seeing how powerful most will be, but if could lower some of the higher levels so that his companions would have an easier time to defeat them.

So he began to set up the wooden spikes. But as he did so, a thought occurred to him, what if instead of feeding the Orange Balloon's Scraps into his shield, what if he could sell them. So hoping to find a way to earn more money, Naofumi asked,"Are those balloon scraps worth anything?"

"Sadly no, you would be lucky to get a single copper coin for them."

"…And how many copper coins are in a silver coin?" ask Naofumi.

"Like with the silver to gold, a hundred." Myne explained to the Shield Hero.

_'Oh, well. I didn't really expect it to sell for much anyway.'_ Naofumi thought with a sigh.

"So what level are you by the way Myne?" asked Naofumi, wondering if he suspicions were right, that she was a high level than he was. "Also, what are you skilled in?"

"I'm a level five and I'm skilled in swordplay and I can use fire magic." explained Myne, seeing no real reason to hide her skills from the Shield Hero. It wasn't like he could do anything to her,

"So these small fries won't be any problem to you?" asked Naofumi.

"Not really no." explained Myne, when two more Orange Balloons had approached them as they were speaking. However, Myne drew her blade and struck them down with two swifts, elegant cuts. They didn't even last a second. "As you can see, they don't last long for me. But this is a good place for you to level up before you have to face any tougher monsters." Then seeing that Naofumi had finished placing the spikes about, she asked him, "What are you planning to do with those spikes?"

Sighed, he was right, these balloons were nothing for her, it also should how weak he, or rather, this shield - really was. So he needed something else if he wanted to level up, as if he wasn't able to hold weapons, he had to use the environment around him to defeat the monsters. Like setting up traps and such and use it against them to defeat them.

"Well seeing how I can't use normal weapons, I want to see if I can use the environment around me." explained Naofumi, "See if I'm able to use traps and such to defeat the monsters around here. I know that I might not be able to defeat high level monsters, but I could weaken them or at the very least destrate or slow them down, allowing you to defeat them instead."

"That's not a bad idea." admitted Myne, where for a split few seconds, she had a worried and concerned look on her face. She had plans for the Shield Hero, one that she was now rethinking about. She hoped that this Hero was like most adventures in her world, those who thought within the box and and fought monsters head on. Instead he was thinking like someone within the Hunters Guild, who hunt the powerful monsters that cause problems for villages and towns, those who thought outside the box. Those were the ones that she try and stay away from, as they thought about their actions and react differently to what they faced. No, she knew she had to watch the Shielder carefully and see how to change her plans for him.

What she didn't know was that whilst her worried and concerned look was only on her face for a few seconds, Naofumi saw it and was concerned himself. He suspected something was up, but with no proof that she was up to anything, he couldn't do much about it. As right now, he needed her more than he would have liked, all he knew was that he had to be more careful around her.

"But how are you going to bring the monsters to you?" asked Myne as she thought about it, "It's not like they'll appear here all the time, unless you are willing to wait around her. And it would be a waste of stamina finding them and making them chase after us to this point."

Naofumi had to admit that she was right, not only would it be a waste of stamina, but time too, he had to think about this. That's when he remembered the shield that he unlocked last night, the _**Tantric Shield**_. It Special Effect was, Pheromones. He just remembered from his science class that some animals use Pheromones to not only mates, but prey too. It was so that they wouldn't have to go far to hunt, as their prey would come to them. Hoping that this idea would work, he summoned the shield to use it.

As he summoned it, Myne was shocked upon seeing it, as it wasn't one of the shields that was created that day. So she had to ask, "When did you get that shield Sir Hero?"

"Last night," admitted Naofumi, "I was playing around with my shield last night when I unlocked this one. Until now, I wasn't able to test it out, but it has a Special Effect known as Pheromones. So I think you should stand behind me, in fact, I would say you should move back to the tree. As this shield could affect you too."

Myne was all too happy about moving away from him, she knew all too well what pheromones were, as some adventures came across this skill before. In fact, when she first started adventuring herself, she snake away for her guards and team. Her team meant to be searching a dungeon for an important artefact that was meant to be there, but she wanted it for herself. But she was caught by a monster with this skill, if it wasn't for her party, she would have been a monster's plaything before it killed her. She pretended that she got lost and that's why she got caught.

Not only did she know about pheromones because of getting caught by the skill from the monster, but she uses a potion based pheromones for her own needs. After getting caught by it, she realized how useful it was, she found if made into a potion and given to a person, they would be willing to do whatever she wanted. But that's as long as she made sure that she kept giving them the potion, they would be able to make them do whatever she wanted. As she got behind the tree and smiled wickedly at the foolish Shield hero at showing her this specific Shield.

As Naofumi used his sex shield's special abilitiy, ten Balloon monsters appeared, Orange, Yellon and Red Balloon monsters from different levels - from the _**Appraisal Shield, **_the red ones being the strongest of the three. In fact, when he used his shield to summon them, their behaviour seemed to be different, more aggressive. They in fact had Aggressive added to their name, and their attack and defence went up a bit, along with being faster. But it wasn't anything that Naofumi couldn't handle thanks to being the Shielder. These were a bit tougher and faster than the original Orange Balloons, but it meant that Naofumi could learn to anticipate and evade their attacks too.

As Naofumi hoped, as he threw the Balloon Master onto the wooden spike, they popped as the spike went through them. The Shield Hero had hoped that with two different versions of the Balloons appearing, he would gain more exp, but it wasn't the case. In ten minutes of defeating the Balloons, he only gained ten EXP. Naofumi was somewhat shocked, he thought that as Aggressive Balloons, they would have more EXP, but it wasn't the case here.

Naofumi did this trick until his EXP was up to thirty-five points, at which point Myne called out for him to stop. She informed him that if they were going to be allies, they had to begin to learn to fight together. As much as Naofumi would have waited to level up to level two before doing so, he didn't see any problems with the idea. He could level up as they fought together.

So the two of them they walked through the plains until the sun had nearly set, slaying every Balloon they encountered. Apparently, they came in a variety of colours, since aside from the standard Orange Balloons they ended up fighting a few Yellow Balloons even a few more Red Balloons, too. Being the normal versions of the Balloons, they were easier to deal with.

By the end of the day though, Naofumi was able to collect many balloon scraps from both the Orange, Yellow and Red Balloons, something he was hoping to sell when he had the time. Not only that, but he was able to gain another fifteen EXP by finishing off some of the Balloons that Myne weakened for him. Not only that, but he also gained 2% in his Accuracy and 5% in his Evading Skills, something he didn't know about. But at the time didn't have the time to look it up yet

"There are stronger monsters up ahead, but we should probably head back to the castle before it gets dark." said Myne seeing the sun setting.

"Aww, but I wanted to keep fighting some more…" Naofumi admitted since he wasn't taking any damage, defending against the Balloons' attacks was really easy. He felt like he could keep going all day. "I only have ten EXP to gain before I can level up."

"I understand your feelings, Sir Shield Hero," Myne told him, "but it is said that at night, more tougher monster appear here. Not only that, but I was hoping we could visit the weapon shop again before they close. If you buy me better equipment, we will easily be able to progress much further than this tomorrow."

"…I guess I can't argue when you put it like that." Naofumi somewhat agreed with her.

But Naofumi had to wonder if it was really okay to stop here when he was so close to levelling up? Naofumi had already fulfilled the material conditions for the Orange, Yellow and Red small shields, so all he had to do now was to gain a little bit more experience and he would be able to use them.

Although he had collected enough balloon scraps to fulfil the conditions to unlock the shields, he kept collecting them. They might only be worth a single copper coin each, but hey, money was money!

Because he needed Myne to be at her strongest, she got her way and they paused our adventure midway to return to town.

_**o0OoO0o**_

By the time they got back to the castle town, it was already evening. They headed straight for the weapons shop.

"Ah, if it isn't the shield kiddo. You know, the other Heroes stopped by after you left." Erhard told the Shield Hero.

'_So everybody ended up outfitting themselves at this shop, huh?' _Naofumi thought to himself, _'No wonder the shopkeeper looked so pleased with himself.'_

"I see. Say, you wouldn't be willing to buy these, would you?" asked Naofumi, as he showed him the scraps that he had scavenged from the Balloons they hunted today, but he just waved toward the door indifferently.

"There's a shop around here that specializes in buying and selling materials from monsters." Erhard informed the young man, "I'm sure they'd be willing to take them off your hands."

"Thanks."

"No problem. So, do you need anything else?"

"Yes. I wanted to buy some equipment for my companion, here." Naofumi informed him.

Naofumi looked around the store for Myne and found her staring intently at the equipment on display.

"What's your budget this time?"

Naofumi knew he had seven hundred and twenty silver coins left, and he thought as he looked around the store, _'What's the best way to spend them?'_ As he thought about it, he realized the best he could do for now was to get her a new sword for now. Especially since that he didn't fully trust her, he had been having doubts about her all day, so until he knew where he stood with her, it was best not to give too much to her yet.

Not only that, but after they have done with their shopping, they needed to have enough left over to get them through the rest of the month and gain new companions and get them equipment too if they needed it, Naofumi had no idea how much that was going to cost them. "I say no more than two hundred silver coins, enough for a sword. I need the rest for the remainder of the month, the other is I need to get new companions."

"Equipment for your companion, huh?" Erhard said thoughtfully, admiring the young man's foresight, "Well, it will definitely make her stronger..."

"That's the hope and when we get more money, I can get her better armour." explained the Shield Hero, "Unless you're willing to give a discount for one price of armour."

"But, Sir Hero, I mean Lord Naofumi, can't you get me a good set of armour today?" asked Myne, hoping that using his name would get her what she wanted, as she went up and personal, trying to be lovey-dovey

"Not unless we can get a decent discount, not today." Naofumi told her as he pushed her away, suspecting what she was up to. "I want to see how much I can get from the Balloon Scraps that we gathered today before we plan to buy things first."

Erhard smiled at this, liking this young man for not having the lady pushing him around, trying to trick him into something he didn't want. There won't many people like that, seeing there was one in front of him, he said with a smile, "In that case, depending on the sword she gets and what armour she wants, I'm willing to haggle a discount."

So with that Myne went to search for a decent sword and chest armour, she was a bit upset that she couldn't get a full set of armour. After a while searching, she came back with a sword and a metal chest piece, and after some haggling, Naofumi was able to get enough discount to get the price down to two hundred and ten silver coins. Sure it was ten more silver coins than Naofumi planned to payout, but at least it wasn't as bad as it could have been if he allowed Myne a full set of armour.

After buying the sword and armour, Myne thanked him and gently kissed his hand in gratitude.

'_Yeah! Affection Points: UP!' _Naofumi thought happily, hoping that things were getting better, although part of him was still worried, _'With luck our journey from tomorrow should be more enjoyable!'_

At any rate, new equipment in hand, Myne and Naofumi headed to the town's inn.

_**o0OoO0o**_

As the two got to the local inn, Naofumi booked them in where he found that the rates were thirty copper coins per person per night. There was an extra eight copper coins for breakfast and dinner for each day, per day, so it would be eight copper coins for that nights nights meal. So with food, it would be normally thirty-eight copper coins day at the inn, which wasn't bad as Naofumi believed it would be.

So he knew that for one person for one month at the inn, it was going to cost him eleven silver and forty copper coins. Which meant that for him and Myne, it would cost twenty-two silver and eighty copper coins for the next month. So that meant with the remaining coins that he had, after paying for the rooms for the two of them, he would have about four hundred and eighty silver coins. This meant that he could only gain one other companion for now, as it was possible that the new companion might need weapons or armour. If they didn't then he might be able to gain another one after them. There could be other ways around this to save coins, but right now he couldn't think of it. Maybe after a good nights rest he might think of something.

After paying for the room for the night, decided that seeing that it was his first night with his companion, they would stop in at the tavern next door for dinner. Where Naofumi decided he would order two of their deluxe specials, which ran six copper coins apiece.

As the two were waiting for the waitress, Naofumi pulled out the map that he had purchased on the way back into town and spread over the table and asked Myne to help him get his bearings.

"This here is the plain we were fighting in today, right?" asked Naofumi as he was making notes about this area's terrain on the map, for future reference. It might have been better to ask Renka or Motoyasu about it, but they won't there right now and Naofumi wanted to plan out the next day now, so he knew where he and Myne was planning to go tomorrow.

"Yes, that's right." acknowledged Myne as she looked at the map.

"And from our conversation earlier, would I be right in thinking this forest here is the next hunting ground after the plains?" ask Naofumi.

The map gave a broad overview of this country's terrain. Basically, there was a vast plain with the castle at its centre. From there, there were roads running toward the forest and mountains, as well as roads that intersected with rivers and villages.

However, since this map was so small, only a few villages near the castle were actually shown. It didn't give any indication of what to expect beyond the forest, either, which was problematic. Without knowing where to go and what kind of monsters would be there, it was impossible to progress.

"Yes. It's not recorded on this map, but our current goal is Raffin Village, which is on the other side of the forest." Myne informed our young hero.

"Hmm..." hummed Naofumi.

"And, just past Raffin there's a dungeon well-suited for novice adventurers." informed Myne.

"A dungeon?" Naofumi asked in concern. Sure, hunting monsters was the basis of online games, but that was aiming too high. He was concerned that his level wasn't high enough to be facing a dungeon right now.

Seeing this concern, Myne said, "You don't have to worry about the dungeon, it is an old and abandoned one, not ones that appear every so often."

"What do you mean by the ones that appear every so often?" asked the Shield Hero.

"Well, there are dungeons that seem to appear every so often, that have great treasures within them." explained Myne, "Some appear in random places at random times for a while, whilst other dungeons appear and stay and over time their treasures stop appearing - these dungeons have all kinds of monsters at different levels. The treasures are from coins to spells and other magical items."

Naofumi found this interesting, so from what he could understand, a dungeon could appear for a short while where an adventure could search the place for the treasure and defeat the monsters to level up. But then there were dungeons that appear and stick around, which have treasure that reappear over time before it stops.

"What do you know about this dungeon?" asked Naofumi.

"It's an abandoned dungeon, with much of its treasure already found, I highly doubt we'll find much of value there now." explained Myne, "However, you can often find low to medium level monsters there, so it's a good place for increasing your level."

"Are you sure it's safe for us?" Naofum asked with concern, "Whilst you might say there's low to medium level monsters there, are you sure witch my level well we be okay?"

"Don't worry! Thanks to you getting me this new sword and with your high defence, it will be an easy victory."

"Haha, thanks." Naofumi laughed, "I just hope that it'll be so easy."

"Think nothing of it." Myne told him as the waitress came to take their order.

After ordering food from the waitress, the two settled into a companionable silence, exchanging a few words about the world and people nearby. Soon enough, their food arrived and Naofumi placed his hands together with his silverware while saying "Thank you for the food".

Myne looked at him with curiosity, as she wondered who is he saying thank you to?

He dove into his meal with gusto, his eyes lit up as he chewed. Swallowing his first bite, he exclaimed "This is incredible! Is all the food in this world this delicious!?" She laughed at his excitement. If nothing else, it was contagious.

"Not everything tastes this good, but this is pretty standard here. The inns in this country have a work union that helps keep the quality fairly high." She answered, slowly eating her own meal.

After several minutes, both of them had finished their meals and it was beginning to get dark.

"I just wanted to say thank you for joining me. I don't know what I would have done all by myself. I probably would have gotten lost getting out of the castle." Naofumi laughed while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. Myne giggled and placed her hand on his arm affectionately.

"It's no problem! I'll always be here for you, Sir Shield Hero." Her eyes were practically closed from how much she was smiling. Naofumi once again had a gut feeling that something wasn't right, that the way she was acting around him was an act.

But then again, he could be wrong, he was in a new world and so people might act differently than they do in his world. "By the way, that style of fighting that you used early, the punching and kicking, what was that all about?" Myne asked in interest, she didn't see anything like that before in her life. Most adventures she knew used either magic or weapons of some kind, never their feet or/and hands. The only times she saw someone using their fest and feet was in bar fights, or when things got out of hand and fight break out. Even then, she didn't see them using their hands and feet in the way the Shield Hero did.

"Hmm, that's what my world calls martial arts," explained the Shield Hero, "we use it to defend ourselves. With training, one can break wooden blocks, even stone breaks. There are stories that masters of martial arts can use energy called Chi, I believe it is called, to do amazing things and use to strengthen one's body to live for longer. To be honest, though, I don't know much about it."

Myne couldn't believe that the Shield Hero's world had such ability, she heard rumours that other worlds had magic and such, but she never heard of anything known as Chi nor anything about martial arts. She had to wonder though, what was the Shield Hero's ability in this skill. So she asked, "So tell me, what is your skill level in this martial art skill of yours and can you use this Chi?"

"Sadly I only started martial arts in the last few years years, so I'm still considered as a beginner. I could have been more, but to be honest, I only started to learn it to defend myself. I wasn't planning to master the ability." Naofumi informed the red head, as he ate his dinner. "As for Chi, I was years away from learning such ability, and if the stories are true, I would have to master most of the martial arts before I could learn it."

"I see," Myne said thoughtfully as she took a sip of her wine, "it could have been useful for you here if you could have learned it."

"You might be right, but there's nothing I could do now though." Naofumi said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"True," admitted Myne, seeing that he hadn't drunk any of the wine that she gave him, she asked, "aren't you going to drink any wine?" Myne asked. But the way she was asking, Naofumi sensed she was too eager for him to drink it for some reason.

Since this was a tavern, they had brought out alcohol along with the food. However, Naofumi hadn't touched it at all.

"Ah, sorry. I don't really like the stuff."

It wasn't like Naofumi couldn't handle himself. On the contrary, he had such a high tolerance that it was almost impossible for him to get drunk. He just didn't really have an interest in it, that's all. It probably stems back to the times Naofumi went out drinking with friends in college and had to sit there and watch everybody get drunk off their asses whilst he stayed stone-cold sober. It wasn't very fun.

"You know, most men in this world would never in their lifetime refuse a drink from a woman." Myne told the young hero, finding it a bit of an insult that he wouldn't have one drink with her, "Melromarc is a matriarchy, so women generally hold the power in both politics and relationships."

"I understand Myne, but I have personal reasons why I don't drink, at least not anymore." the Shielder informed his companion.

"Not even just one glass?"

"Seriously, I'd rather not." Naofumi told her firmly, "I don't mean to insult you if that's what you're thinking, but the stuff doesn't do anything for me and so I don't see the point of drinking it."

"But..."

"Sorry."

"I see..."

Myne put down the bottle of wine with a disappointed look on her face.

"Anyway, I'm glad we were able to talk about our plans for tomorrow, but I think I'm going to go ahead and turn in early." Naofumi her, the truth was he wanted to think about what to do with her. Whilst she was cute and he would love nothing to be with her for his time here, something about her made him uneasy and he was starting to think that they should part ways before she could do something to him.

"Goodnight, Shield Hero." Myne sounding a bit unhappy.

Naofumi had already finished his meal, so he left the boisterous tavern and returned to his assigned room.

_**o0OoO0o**_

Along the way, he brought a few more maps for him to look at, not who that but he had an idea or two he wanted to try out. Once Naofumi was there, he stripped off his chain mail and laid it on the chair.

"..."

Naofumi set down his pouch of silver coins on the desk in the room. This inn required payment in advance, he was glad that he didn't spend so much on Myne early, otherwise, he was unsure about how much he would be down to. That thought alone made him uneasy, as he could have been almost totally broke if he allowed himself to buy her more, and that's something he didn't want right now. He needed every last coin that he had.

As he sat at the desk, he put backpack next to the new maps, before he looked through the maps, trying to make heads and tails of them, so he could at his bearings for future reference. As he was looking through him, he thought about what happened today. A whole lot of things happened that day!

Naofumi knew what it was like to defeat monsters, now, even if it was just popping balloons. His thoughts were racing. He was still shocked that he really was in another world. Just like last night, the excited feeling in his chest wouldn't go away. Sure he didn't have as many companions as the other Heroes, he might have to let go of the one that got, but it might be better that way.

Why keep someone around when you can't trust them, in the long run, that would be more trouble than anything. He could easily find new companions soon enough. And who cares that he wasn't the strongest, as long as he did the best that he could and help those who can.

But thinking about his strength though, there was a nagging feeling he couldn't get rid of. In the few games that he knew of back home when a person was in a party when a companion killed a monster whilst you're in the party, you would get some EXP too. But then again, it could be that this world's system was like one of the other games that he played, where even if you were in a party, you wouldn't gain EXP if your party killed a monster unless you hit them or in his case today, killed them.

Another problem that he had with her was how she was treating him that day, that nagging feeling told him that wasn't the case, that she was hiding something from him. Like why would she call him Shield Hero, when she could easily call the other heroes by their names with ease. There was the fact she was trying to get her a full set of armour when she knew that they need to spread it over time until they recruited new companions, not only that, but she was trying to force him to drink the wine when he didn't want to drink it.

As he stretched his arms out, he knocked his backpack over and some of his paperwork was knocked out. One of the papers was the drawing of the red headed bitch/witch, the one that had notes to say that no matter what, he couldn't trust the whore. For the first time since he got here, he saw the face he wanted to draw for her face, it was none other than Myne's face.

With this new revolution and the way things were going that day, the growing mistrust of the red head, it made his decision to part ways even easier. He would do so the very next morning. Sooner he did so, the faster he would be able to find new companions without worrying she would interfere somehow.

*yawn*

Damn, he was tired, he said before putting the pictures away figuring that he'll figure it out later. but there were a few things he wanted to try before he went to sleep for the night. If his shield was able to absorb everything that he given it today and created a new shield from it, there was another shield he hoped to create - some sort of map shield. Which is why he bought these maps that he got, he wanted to see if it could absorb the maps and if so what would happen to them.

He tried and memorize as much of the city map as he could before he fed the parchment to his shield.

For the first time that day, his shield only absorbed the map and nothing happened; it didn't unlock a new shield-like before. Curious as to why Naofumi unconsciously grabbed the next map and almost fed it to his shield. He glanced at the second map, this one is even easier to memorize than the first. He gulped in some air and did the motion in one flow, feeding more parchment to his shield.

_**Cartographer's Shield Unlocked**_

_**Cartographer's Shield… **_

_Equipment Bonus: _

_Cartography Proficiency (Unmastered!)_

_Terrain-Recognition Proficiency (Unmastered!)_

_Special Effect: _

_World Map _

Naofumi equipped the shield. His shield morphed into something akin to a binder. He opened the cover to find the inside of the shield resembling something like a sci-fi screen from a manga that he had read a while back. It seemed alive, it was showing little details of the areas he had been and coupled it together with the maps he fed the shield. There was even a little dotted trail following the locations of that day.

It would seem that his first idea seemed to work, sure he didn't get any bonus defence or attack points, but now he had an ideal way to keep track of where he was going. Naofumi believed that if he added more maps to the shield and visiting places, the shield would show even more details. This gave him more of a reason to travel the kingdom and other counties, to find unknown landmarks and areas that the maps didn't know about and won't written in.

There was a pin and a screen with an update notice on it, so sceleting it, it reopened the _**Appraisal Shield.**_

_**Appraisal Shield - Lv 1… **_

_Equipment Bonus: _

5% Change of Rare Item Drop on Appraised Monster (Unmastered.)

Plus 10% Defence against Appraised Monster (Unmastered.)

Plus 10% magical Defence against Appraised Magical Monster (Unmastered.)

Plus 5% Attack against Appraised Monster (Unmastered.)

Plus 5% Magical Attack against Appraised Monster (Unmastered.)

_Special Effect: _

Appraisal

Appraised creatures will now be shown on the Cartographer's Shield_…_

_**Leaf Shield… **_

_Equipment Bonus: _

_Gathering Skill 1 (Unmastered)_

_Special Effect:_

_Locations of plants that have been appraised will now be shown on the Cartographer's Shield…_

_**Sharpening Shield… **_

_Equipment Bonus: _

_Mineral Gathering Skill 1 (Unmastered)_

_Special Effect:_

_Automatic Sharpening (8 Hours) - High Consumption. _

_[One will need to fit a specific weapon into a slot for this special ability to take effect]_

_Locations of Minerals that have been appraised will now be shown on the Cartographer's Shield…_

It would seem that unlocking this _**Cartographer's Shield**_, it allowed it so that any monsters, plants and minerals that he appraised with his _**Appraisal Shield, **_appear on his World Map. This would make things so much easier, it would help him with levelling up and making sure that he didn't face high level monsters until he was ready. He was really pleased with himself for unlocking this shield. He had to wonder if there was any other shields that could interact with his _**Cartographer's Shield**_, he would have to keep an eye out for them. As they would be very useful if there were shields like this.

*yawn*

Naofumi knew he had to get some sleep, but there was one more experiment that he wanted to try, seeing how the map idea worked. So grabbing wallet from his backpack, he placed it next to the shield's gem to see if anything happens. He was going to use some coins for this idea, but until he was able to get more, he didn't want to risk losing the coins that he had for an idea he didn't know would work. His wallet though, he knew that he had no need for it in this world and using it might give him a new shield, so there was nothing to lose. So he brought his wallet close to the gem, which he happily see that it promptly sucked it in. After sucking the wallet in, a message popped up and the shield transformed once again.

_**Treasury Shield Unlocked**_

_**Treasury Shield - Level 1:**_

_Equipment Bonus:_

Defence: 5 (Unmastered.)

_Special Effect: _

_Coin Storage_

Max Cooper Coins: 300

Max Silver Coins: 300

Max Gold Coins: 30

His new shield was a leather vambrace with three metal pleats, the shield's gem on the back of the hand. It had a wallet like sleeve, to place the coins. It looked less like a shield and more like a method of deflecting weapons with one's forearm. The Shield Hero had to admit this was a useful shield, as he could hide the fact that he was the Shield Hero. This was one shield he didn't want people to know about, so he wouldn't be telling anyone about this shield apart for those he really trusts.

As he opened up the new shield to look inside of it, nothing out of common, it looked like his wallet then a shield. Taking the name of his current bonus skill in stride, Naofumi grabbed all of his remaining copper coins that he had and dropped them inside the sleeve meant for copper. With great relief, they fit rather easily.

A screen appeared in front of him:

_Copper Coins:_

28/300

Naofumi smiled at this, glad to see that he could keep track of how much coins he could hold. Next he decided to place some of his silver into his new shield.

_Silver Coins:_

200/300

As Naofumi placed the silver into the shield, he begun to wonder to himself, _'This, legit, breaks so many laws of physics. Does this world actually follow the same laws?' _Sure there was magic, but he thought that if you place so much money into something, visual effect to show that he placed so much into the shield, but there was nothing.

But other than that, he would have to level the shield up if he wanted to place more coins into it, but he had to find out how to first, especially since as soon as he zipped up his wallet a number appeared on his scream showing him exactly how much money he was holding. But before he could investigate more about it, he once again yawned. He placed his coin bag to one side of the disk, he would have placed more into the shield, but one thing stopped him: he didn't want people to know about this shield. This meant that he had to have a bag of coins on him, or people would wonder where his coins were.

Naofumi couldn't fight it, his eyes were getting heavy. A joyful racket was coming from the direction of the tavern, and Naofumi could almost swear he heard Motoyasu and Itsuki's voices amongst the noise. Maybe they were staying at this inn tonight too?

Naofumi reached out and extinguished the lamp lighting up the room. It was still a little early, but even so, he quickly drifted off to sleep… he, after all, had a long day.

_**To be Continued! **_

_**Author's Note:**_ Here ends the next chapter of The Rising of Shield Demon, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and the new shields that I have added -if you enjoyed the chapter, please leave some feedback and let me know what you thought of it. I still want your thoughts from the past chapters, so please look back on them and if possible, give me your thoughts.

Now I would like your thoughts about something I have planned, I'm thinking about making Naofumi as an Alchemist. I came up with the idea by reading the Web Novel, where he had Alchemist like skills. I also the idea popped into my head when I was thinking about ways to make Naofumi stronger in some way. Seeing that he had stronger magic attack than normal attack, I was thinking about using magic to make him stronger. Over time, giving him powers of an Alchemist came to mind. So I want to know, what do you think of this, is it a good idea or not?


	6. Chapter 5

_**Author's Note:**_ To a guest review asking if there was going to be hybrid weapons like a blade shield, the answer is yes, there will be. But it won't be as powerful as the other heroes weapons, his main strength will be magic and defence.

I got a review saying that they are skipping chapters because the are more or less cannon, I advise you not to do that, as you would miss the extra parts that makes up the story. They are world building chapters, if you miss the chapters, you might see something in this chapter or the next and wonder, what the hell did I miss. It is better to read all the chapters to make sure that you don't miss anything and get confused later.

_**Chapter Five… **_

_**The Betrayal!**_

_With Myne:_

Princess Malty Melromarc a.k.a Myne Sophia was sitting in her room, thinking about the past day, she went with the Shield Hero for three reasons but mostly for one, to find out what he really was like and steal all of his money and frame him. What she discovered shocked her. She was expecting some weak person like how the stories portrayed him as. At first, that was true, he was the weakest of the four heroes, but what he lacked in attack points, he made up for in smarts.

When he realized that if he couldn't use weapons, he thought outside the box and set up traps to defeat the monsters and it worked. Make things worse, the Shield Hero had a shield that was able to summon monsters to him by using pheromones. She didn't know how he was able to get such a shield, but if used right, he could level up fast.

The main problem with this though was that the Balloons Monsters became aggressive, they were stronger and faster than before. Thankfully though, all he was able to summon in the area was Balloons Monsters, sure she would have problems with them if she fought them, but given time she would have been able to defeat them. What worried her was what if he summoned something stronger than a Balloon Monster? Sure the plains were normally where the weak monster appears, but every so often though, a strong monster appears what if the Shield Hero summoned that one? It would have been an aggressive type one and could have killed her or worse along with him.

She did care if he died, in fact, she would have been very annoyed if he died before she could set up her plan. She wanted to frame him for multiple crimes rising up his evilness in the eyes of the people, before killing him off with one of the other Heroes most likely the Spear Hero, he looked quite good-looking and easy to manipulate just her type, but she had to wait until her plan was ready, especially given how her mother has been treating her lately.

Back to the matter at hand, spending the day with the Shield Hero showed that he was smarter than expected and thought like a Hunter. If you can't kill it with strength alone, use cunning instead, weaken the monster before killing it. Another problem is that like a Hunter, he didn't seem to trust people that easy. Whilst he didn't show it, she could tell that he didn't trust her. Although he did try and get along with her, he showed signs that he wouldn't trust her at all. Even at dinner that night, he wouldn't drink the wine that she offered him. No man before would have denied a drink from her, it was as if he knew that she had the drink laced with pheromones. But she didn't know how, seeing that it was one of the Church's Shadows who served the wine, she didn't touch it.

As she thought more about it, another thing that didn't go her way was that the damn Shield Hero wouldn't buy her everything she wanted. All he was willing to buy her was a new weapon and one price of armour, not a full set as she hoped he would. It was strange, never in her life had a man turn her down, not even her own father. She hated it, she loved getting her own way, but yet with the Shielder, she couldn't, which made her angry. But she smiled all the less, knowing that she had plans for him and he would pay dearly for this.

She was going to doublecross the Shield Hero and make his life hard either way, in the hopes that no one would trust him making his life harder and making it easier to blame him for more crimes that she was going to commit, and with the Church of the Three Heroes help in framing him she would have an easier time stealing the throne from her bitch of a mother as she laughed as she watched her too trusting Little Sister Burn alongside her and everyone would blame the Demon of the Shield. But now, she was sitting in the inn room trying to think of a way to destroy the man, so that even if he leaves her kingdom, no other kingdom would trust nor want him.

Her original plan was to frame him for raping her, but now with the fact that he was friends with the Sword Hero, who was revealed to be a female and not a male as Myne thought she was last night. So if she tried to frame the Shield Hero for rape now, Lady Renka might defend the damn Shield. Especially if what the Church's Shadows found out was true, that the two had sex together the night before and it was gentle and consensual.

As if it was, the Swordswoman would back the Shielder up, which means that all of her plans to discredit the Shield Hero might fail, but Malty wasn't one to give up so easily, especially with her goals so close, she just have to think about this carefully. Right now she couldn't go against the Sword Hero, as if she did, she might have the Church of the Three Heroes against her. To them, the Spear, Sword and Bow were like Gods, so going against them without a good reason would be real bad for her. So she had to think of another way to deal with the Shield Hero.

The only saving grace in this situation was that the Shield Hero had a shield which had pheromones for its ability. As she thought about it, an came up with the idea out that the Shielder used it on her to have sex with him, but she was able to fight it off.

But the problem would be with Lady Renka. Sure she heard the stories from the Shadows about Lady Renka, the full story as to why she pretended to be a male. That men in her world would take any female that they wanted and rape them as they like, but instead of being punished for it, they got away with it. But the problem was that she didn't know if Lady Renka would believe her story.

She expected that in Lady Renka's world, no woman had accused a man of rape when they hadn't done it, as if they did, Myne expected that they wouldn't be punished severely for it. So Myne expected she could play Renka with this, making her think that he really was a cruel and manipulating man. That when he heard her story and used it to gain sympathy to take away her innocence.

The problem was this, would Lady Renka believe such a story, would the Shield Hero be able to convince her that she was lying about the rape. Myne knew that she had to come up with a way so that not even the Shield Hero could get himself out of her lie.

Now as she was trying to figure out her next step, a stranger clad in dark blue approached her from the shadows. This stranger's attire was stark dark blue, except for the chest and shoulder that were covered by a chest plate and shoulder guards. At the hips pouches and wrists were bound by the same dark material of the rest of the outfit. The face was covered in a dark blue hood, with a metal facepiece. If you look carefully, you would be able to see the symbol of the Church of the Three Heroes on the facepiece. The thing with the outfit was that you couldn't tell if the person was a female or male.

With the person coming out of the shadows, the person kneeled on one knee as in a muffled voice, they said, "Your Highness, His Holiness has sent me to see how the plan to discredit the Shield Demon is coming along."

"Sadly not as well as I had hoped," the princess informed the Shadow, "I have a plan, but the problem is that he is close to Lady Renga which could backfire the plan."

"What's your plan?" asked the Shadow.

Myne explained her plan and how it was altered because the friendship between the Shield Hero and Lady Renka, but also explained how with the Shield Demon could convince Lady Renka it isn't true and so the plan could fail.

"Hmm, I see…" hummed the Shadow as they thought about the problem before coming up with a situation for this plan, "I think I have an idea that might help you. But it means a sacrifice on your part."

"What do you mean by sacrifice?" asked Myne, worried at what the Shadow had come up with.

"We heard about Lady Renka's world, how men would beat and rape women and they could do nothing about it." explained the Shadow, "So if she sees you beaten and you say that you were raped, it is more than likely that she'll believe you over him."

"Are you sure this is the only way?" asked the princess, her vanity was showing. She believes that her looks were important to her, as her looks were what got her what she wanted.

"With the time that we have yes this is the only way," the Shadow told her, "do you want His Holiness help in becoming the next Queen or not? If you do, you know there'll be times where sacrifices are needed on your part."

"I know this, but my looks though, they are what got me the things I want." Myne told the Church's Shadow, then a thought came to her, "Can't I use makeup or magic to show that I was beaten up?"

"No, you'll have to have real marks for this to work," the Shadow told her, "all we know is that the Shield Demon could ask a magical cleansing, to see if you were lying or not. Which will make it hard for you and your father."

Myne sighed, this was something that she didn't want to do, but if she wanted to be the next Queen instead of her younger sister, she would have to do this. Although, but doing this, she might gain more points with Spear Hero, he was a good-looking, but at the same time easy to control. So showing up beaten and saying that it was the Shield Hero who did it to her, he might be even easier to control. His party had a few of her friends in it, so with their help, they could get anything they wanted from him.

So with a deep sigh, set to do this, she said, "Okay, let's do this before I change my mind. All I ask is that you place a spell on me so that I can't feel the pain too much and make sure that you don't do any damage that will be long-lasting or leave a visible mark after healing."

"As you asked Your Highness, although I would suggest that you have a scar." the Shadow suggested, "As it'll be a constant reminder to people to what the Demon of the Shield meant to have done to you." the princess seemed to be unsure about this, as she didn't want to lose her good looks. But she knew that if she wants the Church's help, she would have to do things she wouldn't like.

So with a nod with agreement, the Shadow went on to say, "Don't worry, Your Highness, as soon as the deed is done all of the Churches Shadows, will disguise themselves as citizens and before the stores open, there should be enough rumours going about, that no one will trust him nor want to aid him." the Shadow said with a bow as they stood up. Once he was up, he cost a numbing spelling on the young Highness, before they started to hit Myne, to show that she really was raped. After it was done, Myne slowly went to the Shield Hero's room and stole the coins, his bag, armour and anything else she could get her hands on before going to Motoyasu and play the rape victim.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Kingdom of Melromarc, Castle Town, Inn, 7th of January 740, Morning:_

Rattle, rattle.

Hmmm? What was that? People yelling at the bar?

Snore.

Whisper, whisper… something was pulling at my clothes. But he was so tired that he couldn't wake up to see what was going on.

"Heh, heh, men are fools. So easily tricked… can't wait until tomorrow." Naofumi thought he heard someone say, or was it part of his dreams, he wasn't sure.

*mumble*

*rustle*

So hot... clothes stuck...

"Ngh?"

It was cold.

Naofumi didn't know how long it was, but the next thing he knew the sunlight was shining on his face, which told him that it was morning already.

As he Naofumi wiped the sleepiness out of his eyes, he sat up and looked out the window. Apparently, Naofumi had been more tired than he first thought, since the sun was already fairly high in the sky. As he checked his watch, Naofumi he saw that it was nine o'clock, or that was the time in his world, he had no idea how time was dealt with here.

"Huh?" Naofumi said as he looked down and saw that he was wearing nothing but his underclothes. _'Did I strip in my sleep?'_ Naofumi thought to himself, a bit confused about it. But then again, he was so tired last night, that he could have easily undress without remembering what he was doing. He had to admit, when he was back home and fallen asleep fully clothed back home, he did sometimes undressed himself in his sleep.

Well, whatever. He had a long day ahead of himself, first, he had to tell Myne that he no longer wanted her in his party and then look for new companions. As he was getting out of his bed, he heard sounds coming from outside, the street was bustling with people going about their daily routines. The restaurants and food stalls busily preparing for the lunch rush while carriages clattered along made Naofumi feel like he was in a dream.

This world was really amazing. Apparently, there were two types of carriages: higher class horse-drawn ones, and lower class bird-drawn ones. The bird-drawn ones were being pulled by huge, ostrich-like things that kind of reminded him of Chocobo.

The occasional ox-cart rounded out the medieval atmosphere.

"Well then, time for breakfast!" the young man told himself, as he started to prepare for the day. But as he searched around the bed for his clothes, he was unable to find them.

It was strange, not only couldn't he find his clothes, but the armour that he placed on the chair the night before was no longer there.

On top of that, his backpack and his bag of coins was gone too, around three hundred silver coins, that should have been sitting right there on the table was gone too!

Even Naofumi's original clothes, which he had kept just in case he ever needed them, had up and vanished.

"Wha..."

No way!

_'I'd been robbed!?'_ Naofumi thought angrily _'That's totally ridiculous! Didn't this inn have any security at all!?' _

Anyway, Naofumi thought about telling Myne about this, to see if she saw or heard anything. He saw that she didn't go to her room straight away, so she could have seen or heard something. But then a dark thought came to him, _'Did that bitch do this to me.' _

Naofumi didn't want to think that this was true, as whilst she _was _somewhat helpful to him yesterday, but it would make a lot of sense if she did. Why she never called him by his name but would call the other heroes by their name, she was trying to get him to buy her a full set of armour and a weapon and many small things that bothered him yesterday. It was one big set up, butter him bim up and get what she could from him before stealing the rest from him when he was asleep.

But then again he could be wrong and someone else did this and he was jumping to conclusions, all because the way she acted the day before and the picture of her too. Sure the saying there's no smoke without fire came to mind, but Naofumi didn't want to accuse her until he knew for sure. As if he did and she is proven innocent, it could make things worse for him.

So Naofumi went to her room and knocked on her door as he called out, "Myne! Myne! I need to talk to you!"

But no matter how desperately he knocked, there was no response. As much as he hated to think it, but it didn't look good for Myne in his mind, all of his things were gone and Myne was nowhere to be found. Sure it was possible that she just went to have breakfast or she went out into town for some reason, but Naofumi was thinking of the worst-case scenario.

He was so preoccupied that Naofumi almost didn't notice the heavy footsteps approaching from down the hall. Before he knew it, he. had been surrounded by castle knights.

_'Thank goodness!'_ Naofumi thought upon seeing the knights, he could see a light shining in the darkness. He hoped that once he explained what had happened, they'd definitely catch Myne and find out if she was behind this or not, and if she was, she would regret ever messing with a Hero!

"You guys are from the castle, right?" asked Naofumi, "You've gotta help me!"

He earnestly appealed to the knights. Where the hell was Myne? Her not being here was making the young Shield Hero suspicious!

"Shield Hero!"

"Y-Yes?" Naofumi asked worriedly, why did it seem they were so hostile against him. He didn't do a thing, in fact, someone stole from him.

"You've been ordered to appear before the king. Come with us." ordered one of the knights.

"Appear before the...? Wait, what!?" the young otherworlder asked confused, seeing how he had no idea what the fuck is going on, "I can't see the king, you have to help me! I believe that my companion came into my room last night and..."

"I said let's go!" ordered one of the knights once again as two of knights roughly took hold of Naofumi's arms and started dragging him down the hall.

"Hey, stop! Listen to me!"

_'What the fuck were they doing?'_ Naofumi thought darkly, _'I'm still in my _underclothes_ for god's sake!' _

"Myne! Myyyne!"

But the knights ignored the hero's cries, as they forcibly brought him back to the castle in one of the very carriages Naofumi had thought were so wondrous just a little earlier. Nobody told the Shield Hero anything. He had no idea what was going on. The only certainty was their eyes - their eyes that clearly regarded him as a criminal for some reason.

_**o0OoO0o**_

Once they arrived at the castle, the knights marched the Shield Hero - still in his underwear - into the royal audience chamber, spears prodding at his back. The king and minister were waiting for him with sullen looks on their faces.

And...

"Myne!"

Not only were Renka, Motoyasu, and Itsuki already there, along with all of their followers, but Myne as well. However, when Naofumi called out to her she shrank back behind Motoyasu and glared at him. What he saw shocked him though was how Myne looked like, she had a cut lip, a cut across her eye, a bruised nose and her. It looked like she was beaten by someone.

"Huh? What's with that reaction? What happened to Myne?" Naofumi asked confused, but thinking to himself, _'What is this bitch playing at? Why would she be frightened of him now, when last night she was friendly enough.'_ But as he gave a second look over at Myne and how everyone was looking at him as if he was a villain. His gut give a turn as it twisted in him, as it did, dread came over the Shield Hero, as he fearfully thought, _'Please God no, please fuck no, I hope this isn't what I suspect it is.'_

"You're saying you don't remember?"

Motoyasu questioned him with a threat of menace in his voice.

_'What the hell was all this?'_ Naofumi thought to himself before he began to ask, "Don't remember wha... huh?" That's when he suddenly realized that Motoyasu was wearing his chain mail, boots and gloves.

"Wait a damn minute... I fucking knew it. You're the one who stole my things and give it to pretty boy here!" Naofumi shouted at her angrily.

"Who are you to accuse anybody!?" Motoyasu asked the Shield Hero darkly, "I never thought you would stoop so low, you... you fiend!"

"Fiend? What are you talking about?"

At that, the atmosphere in the audience chamber shifted. Naofumi had the distinct feeling that he was in a courtroom.

"Yes, please state the charges against the Shield Hero." the king said with a sad shy, but Naofumi thought he could see a smirk in his eyes.

"Charges?" Naofumi asked in shock, "What are you talking about?"

"L-last night the Shield Hero got drunk, burst into my room, and... and... f-forced me down against my will!"

"Huh?" asked a dumbfounded Naofumi unable to believe that she was going to try and frame him for rape, while he was lost for words, he wasn't last for thoughts as he thought himself, _'Oh fuck no, she __**is **__going to play that card. But why?'_

"He... he told me that the night was still young, and then started r-ripping off my clothes..."

Myne clung to Motoyasu's back, crying and accusing me through her sobs.

"I was able to fight him off, but he than he summoned one of his shields which had a pheromone ability on it and he tried to use it on me." Myne explained with more fake tears, "But thanks to facing a monster with pheromone ability a while back, I built up a defence against it, so it didn't last long on me. But as I did though, he, he hit me around the face a few times as you can see. He forced him down and began to slap me, telling me that he wouldn't be doing so if I give myself to him. Just like how Lady Renka give herself to him as he pretended to care about what she told him."

"What the fuck, you lying bitch," sneered Naofumi, which he got hit by one of the knights for "I did no such thing. In fact, I left you so that I could turn in early seeing how we fought those damn balloon monsters all day." Than turning to Renka, he begged her, hoping she would listen to him, "Don't listen to this lying bitch, I didn't do such things to her, I wouldn't do these things, I'm innocent."

"Why would she lie about this?" Renka asked with a dark sneer, "I can't believe that I give my first time to a bastard like you, all I know you could have used the same shield on me. Why else would I told you so much and give myself to you when I swore I would never do so."

"But I didn't," Naofumi sobbed a bit, unhappy that someone that he beginning to care about wouldn't believe him, "I don't know if she did it herself or have someone do it to her to frame me, but I didn't rape nor beat her, that's just me."

"Why would a woman do such a thing?" Renka cried as Itsuki held her, hating herself for giving her first time to a rapist. She thought that Naofumi was different to the men from her world, but now she realized that she was wrong, that he was just like all the men she knew, she could not trust a single one of them. Not one time did she think that Myne was lying to them, why would she? In her world, no woman would dare lie about such a thing.

As if they did, would would be wishing for death by the time the man that they accused was finished with them. If they thought what the men did to them at other times was bad, accusing them for something they didn't do, the woman in question would think she was in hell with the punishment that they got. For this reason, no woman in her world would lie about such a thing.

Naofumi wasn't sure how to reply to this, he knew that women in his world, they accused men of fake rape more times than people would like to admit. They did so because they were dumped, mistreated, jealous and many other reasons. Or they did get rape but not knowing who did it, decide to blame an innocent man for these reasons too. But in this case, Naofumi believed that she wasn't raped and she was trying to ruin his name for some fucked up reason. But he knew that for Renka, it was hard to believe that women could do such a thing, seeing how women were treated in her world.

So all he could do was look at Myne in bewilderment, wondering why the hell was she making up this kind of bullshit? Why was she trying to slander his name? Was it because he wouldn't get the gear that she wanted or was there some deeper darker reason for this?

"It was so scary…" continued Myne as if Naofumi and didn't say anything to each other, "I only barely managed to escape from the room, screaming. Thankfully Lord Motoyasu was there to help me."

"What bullshit are you talking about?" Naofumi asked darkly, trying to defend himself, "As I told you, after dinner yesterday, I turned in early after a long day."

"Liar! If that were true, why would Myne be crying like this?" Motoyasu defended the young woman.

"Because she's a fucking psycho bitch, who loves to ruins people's lives for twisted reasons." Naofumi told him darkly, unable to believe that he would fall for such a lie. "Why are you being so protective of her? You barely know her! Why would you fall for this cock and bull story? And while you're at it, explain where you got those chain mail, boots and gloves!"

_'Didn't they meet for the first time yesterday?'_ Naofumi thought to himself, _'Is he that much of a tool that he would believe any pretty face?' _

"Oh, this?" Motoyasu asked as he waved his hand over his new armour, "Myne give it to me as a reward from saving her from you bastard."

"Don't you find it strange that out of all the people at the inn, she would go to you of all people, why not the guards or her father the king, why would she give you those items at all" asked Naofumi, as he tried to make a point, not realizing the slip up that he just made. As the other heroes looked at Myne in shock, wondering if this was true or not.

"How did you know that Malty was my daughter?" asked the king, not seeing the point of hiding it, shocking the heroes, but with what was happening between Naofumi and Myne, they didn't say much. But there were whispers among the noble wondering that the Shield Hero raped the young girl because she was a princess and he wanted to show her and the king who was in control.

Realizing his slap up, Naofumi covered himself by saying, "I overheard people in town asking why your daughter was out in town with me. I never said anything to her as there was no point in asking, if she wanted me to know, she would have told me."

"It's just a coincidence, I was there when she needed me the most, she wouldn't lie and steal." said Motoyasu, as he blindly defends Myne.

"Don't tell me you two believe this cock and bull story?" Naofumi asked the other two heroes, hoping that they would be on his side. "Whilst she might be pretty, I have no interest in her, not only that, but I was planning to remove her from my party, as I didn't trust her. I have no reason to do what she said I had done to her. There are many things I'm willing to do to protect people, even murder if need be, but I draw a line to raping someone."

"Again, why would she lie such a thing, no woman would lie about such a thing." this came from a sobbing Renka, as Itsuki nodded in agreement.

Naofumi couldn't believe it, Renka he could understand with how men treated the women in her world, but Itsuki? Didn't his own world have women who cry out about fake rape like in his world. He would repeat himself by saying that she was a fucking psycho bitch, who loves to ruins people's lives for twisted reasons, but he knew it would make things worse.

But before he could say anything or think of what to say to defend himself more, things were made worse as the Spear Hero said, "All we know is that before you decided to kick her out of your party you decided to have some with her. But seeing that she wouldn't have any of it, you raped her."

"Huh?" Naofumi asked dumbfoundedly, unable to believe this fool would think something like that. What kind of thinking was that it made little sense. It didn't help seeing how the other two heroes seemed to agree with the idiot.

Naofumi decided to give up on talking with Motoyasu and the other Heroes and try to appeal directly to the King. Hoping that he would see sense and help him, letting him know that his daughter was lying to them.

"Your Majesty and noblemen and women! I know what all you heard but none of it is true." Naofumi informed them all, "As you heard, after a long day in the training grounds, I had dinner with Myne and went to bed early. During the night as I soundly slept, my possessions except for my shield and some coins that I hid away were stolen. No matter what you might have heard, I did NOT rape or beat the princess. I beg you, your Majesty to launch an investigation to prove that I didn't do what I'm accused of, to find out who stole my things be it Myne or not, you could even ask the bartender and is a shop owner, The Bartender saw me go to bed not even taking a sip of alcohol and the shopkeeper can easily identify that is my armour! I'm willing to be put under any truth spell you might have so you know that I'm not lying."

"Silence, fiend!"

The king bluntly denied Naofumi's proposal. Oh he knew all too well that the Shield Hero did not do what his daughter was accusing him of, as he knew his daughter all too well. She might think she was clover and smart, but he had his own personal Shadows keeping an eye on her, just in case she got herself into something that she couldn't get herself out of. Sure she was cunning, but not as cunning as she thought she was. But he gave a blind eye to her doing as she was his first born daughter, so allowed her to get away with murder.

Now whilst he knew that the Shield Hero didn't rape his daughter, he was going along with it for one reason and one reason only. He hated the Shield Hero for his own reasons and didn't trust him, so he was more than happy to make his life hard, it was thankful that his daughter was able to come up with something to do so. So he was more than happy to play along with this.

"Committing an act of sexual violent assault on one of my citizens, more importantly my own daughter, is an unforgivable offence. If you weren't one of the Legendary Heroes I would have you put to death on the spot!" the king told the Shield Hero darkly with a hint of a smirk in his eyes, for some reason the King seemed to be enjoying this. "And whilst we do have magic to force the truth from you, we have no idea if it would work on you. It is said that the Legendary Shield has a high resistance against magic, so we would have no idea if you were telling the truth or not."

Naofumi was dumbfounded about this, as much as he hated to admit it, the king had a point. Whilst he hadn't yet what his resistance stats were, he knew that his Magic Defence was quite high, so it wouldn't be surprising to say that his resistance stats were high too. But he thought that the King would have mages that were powerful and could deal with someone who was still level one, Legendary Hero or not.

"Then use it on her." Naofumi told the king, trying to prove his innocence, "she's not a Legendary Hero. She's just a adventurer, if you're going to believe her crap so easily without any proof, well my truth is that she stole my armour and stuff is literally on Motoyasu. There is no way you can be so blind to believe that my supposed teammate, who is supposed to be helping me, went behind my back to help him before the incident even happened!"

However, as Naofumi looked around the room, he saw that everybody in the room had already decided he was guilty. It felt like the world had suddenly dropped out from under him.

_'What the hell? What the hell!? WHAT THE HELL!?'_ Naofumi thought in disbelief and anger, _'Why am I suffering this kind of abuse for something I didn't do?' _

"God damn it, fine, if you're all so convinced that I did this. Where's the damn proof?" Naofumi suddenly asked, realizing that without it they won't be able to punish him as they hoped to. He could feel a terrible, dark emotion coming from deep within him, wanting to come out, rage about the injustice of all this, burn these people and the bitch. But he knew that if he did so, things would just become worse, she he fought the feeling, making sure that he didn't react to his anger, his rage for all this.

That's when a knight came into the chamber, and as he knelt to the ground he said, "Your Majesty, when we performed a search of the Shield Hero's room, we, um, found this sir strewn across his bed." here the knight held up a sexy torn purple nightgown. Upon seeing this, Myne turned and cried into Motoyasu's arms.

"It seems that the proof is undeniable." said the king.

"But your Majesty, that wasn't there when I got up this morning." Naofumi tried to defend himself, "One of your knights must have planted it there."

"You would dare accuse one of my knights in doing such a thing." the king demanded.

And then it happened. As soon as she was sure that nobody was looking at her, Myne's expression changed. A self-satisfied smirk floated across her face, and she stuck her tongue out at him derisively and pulled her eyeled down, telling him that she won this round and there was fuck all he could do about it.

Everything fell into place.

Naofumi glared at Motoyasu as the terrible, dark emotion became stronger, wanting to tere the fucking place apart, it took everything that he had not to let it go and allow this power to come out and play with these fools. He now understood why Myne would join him when no one else would, to be nice to him, it wasn't out of the kindness of her heart, although now he had to wonder if she envy or that she pitied him, no it was because of a plan. It was so she could destroy him here and now.

"You! You did this!" Naofumi sneered at them, a bit surprised by the voice that came out of his mouth. "You set this whole thing up! You and that damn bitch"

"Ha! Like anyone would listen to the words of a damned rapist!" Motoyasu stepped between Naofumi and Mine as if telling the Shield Hero to keep his filthy eyes off her, and played himself up as the hero helping the hapless victim.

"Don't fuck with me, pretty boy!" the Shield Hero told the Spear Hero darkly, believing that he was part of what Myne had done to him, "That's what happened, isn't it!? You two planned all this together, just to get my money and equipment!"

Naofumi believed that the damn ladies man probably knew that he would end up buying Myne lots of nice things to compensate for his own weakness. To help and make get levelled up easily and faster. His plan must have been to have her squeeze Naofumi for everything she could, then skip out with whatever money was left. Then, this entire charade was just to take him out of the picture entirely and ensure they never got caught. Hugging up to him and calling him by his name was prove enough to the Shield Hero that they were working together.

_'Fuck, I'm impressed they could come up with a plan like this in a short time.'_ Naofumi thought darkly.

He did wonder why she never once called him by his name, now with everything that's happening, Naofumi had to wonder if this was her way of saying this world didn't need the Shield Hero?

"Not only lying about not raping her but now he's accusing her and Motoyasu of plotting of stealing from him... what trash."

"You're right. Even I can't bring myself to pity him."

Renka and Itsuki didn't hesitate to condemn Naofumi either. _'So, they were all in on it from the very beginning, huh?'_ Naofumi thought to himself as they all ganged upon him, the darkness blinding him and making him forget that Renka was just as innocent in this as him. That she was been played too, to split the two up. _'So since I have this damn shield, they believe that since I am weak, that I can't fight, they all just decided to trample over me for their own benefit?' _

There was one word that the young man could describe them as… filth.

They were all cowardly filth. None of them had ever believed in him. _'Well, screw that!'_ The Shield Hero thought to himself darkly, _'Why should I have to protect people like them! This world could burn for all I care!' _

He heard the nobles talking about how it was a mistake summoning all of them at once, that they shouldn't have summoned the Shield Hero.

_'Once again it comes down to this damn shield, fine if that's the way they want it so be it.'_ Naofumi thought to himself before saying to them, "...Fine, whatever. If you don't believe me and you don't want me, why don't you just send me back to where I came from? Then you can get yourselves a new Shield Hero." He couldn't believe that he had to come to another world to be treated like scum for something he didn't do.

"As soon as things get inconvenient he runs away, huh? How disgusting."

"I agree. Somebody who would throw away their duty and assault a woman is just..."

"Just go! A person like you could never be a Hero!"

Naofumi wanted to kill them. Renka, Motoyasu, Itsuki - he wanted to kill them right there. The darkness within him was busting to come out, to punish those here for how they were treating him. But he fought these feelings down, as he knew that if he did, things would be a lot worse. This should have been his chance to enjoy an adventure in another world, and they had ruined it. Not only them, but the king and the people of this land looked down on him because of the shield.

"Well, what are you waiting for!? Send me back!" Naofumi told them, "I didn't ask to be ripped away from my world only to be treated like this. So just send me back to my fucking world, I hope this world burns."

However, the king merely seat down and placed his hand on his face in defeat, "I would like nothing more than to kick a Hero like this back to where he came from, I truly do." the king admitted with a deep sigh, "However, legend says that no new heroes can be summoned unless all four of the current Heroes have met their end."

"...What?"

"That can't be..."

"N-No way..."

Finally, even the other three Heroes were at a loss for words.

There was no way to return to our original worlds?

"You're saying that I'm stuck here, that I can't go home!?" The young innocent man asked he couldn't believe it, this had to be some sort of sick joke!

"Sadly no, not yet." the king admitted with another deep sigh, not liking the idea that he couldn't send the Shield Hero back to his world. "The only way you can be sent home is to defeat all of the incoming waves can you be sent home."

"But sire, does that mean we have to fight alongside a criminal like him?" asked one of the knights.

"Screw you guys, who needs bastards like you?" Naofumi said in a fit of rage, "I'll figure out how to handle the wave my own way." With that, the Shield Hero pushed the knights off him.

They tried to attack him, but a magical barrier surrounded him protecting him from anyone who tries to hurt him. Breathing deeply in rage, our hero asked the king, "So what will it be king? Are you going to let me rot in jail in between each wave?"

"As much as I would love to do that, no I won't, it would be counterproductive, as the legend says that we need on four heroes to defeat the waves. So you need to level up so that you can help in the waves, having you imprisoned will only hinder the progress and in the end, could end up killing you. Whilst something we would like would only put this world into danger." the king informed the young man, "So whilst I can't imprison you, as you one of four beings who are able to fight these waves off. But know this, the news of your crimes are already spreading among the people, so that shall be your punishment. Do not expect to find any work in my kingdom, nor lead a decent life."

As Naofumi blink rapidly hearing this information, "Are you all idiots!" the Shield Hero called out, "You just said that you need all four Heroes to work together and yet you asses are going to screw over one of them for some petty pride or believing some cheap bitch lies, just because I'm the shield." the Shield Hero said with a scoff. In short, he had little time to level up as an adventurer and prepare for the Wave. It didn't help that he won't be able to find work here and he wouldn't have an easy time buying things here.

"I'll be leaving. I'm weak, after all. And time's wasting for levelling up. I just hope I never see any of you again until the wave begins."

As Naofumi left the castle, people pointed in his direction and started whispering among themselves. He couldn't really say it was surprising. Rumours here spread quickly, after all.

At any rate, his trust, his respect and most of his money gone. He had lost almost everything

This was the true, miserable start of his adventure in another world.

_**To Be Continued!**_

_**Author's Note:**_ Here ends another chapter of The Rising of Shield Demon, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and how I changed things so far - if you enjoyed the chapter, please leave some feedback and let me know what you thought of it. I still want your thoughts from the notes from the past chapters, so please look back on them and if possible give me your thoughts.

I know that some of you might not like it that I had Myne beat herself up, but I found it strange that out of two people who you just meet, you would believe one was a victim and the other was a rapist without some sort of prove. Because of this, I had Myne get herself beat up, to give prove that Naofumi did rape her.

I hope you like how I portrayed the king, knowing what his daughter was up to, but doing nothing about it. I found it strange that he had the Shadows and yet he knew nothing about his daughter's games with people. As my Beta Reader told me, the king meant to be the Wise King, but the writers dumped him down to levels of stupid that it is unbelievable, and he fell for that legitimately.

Now before you go, I would like to ask for your help, I'm still looking for new slaves and shields and I would like to ask for ideas.

For slaves I would like this information:

Name:

Age:

Birthday:

Race:

Birthplace:

Gender:

Height:

Skin Colour:

Eye Colour:

Hair Colour:

Hair Style:

Body Type:

Scars:

Piercing:

Now for the new shields, need this information:

Name:

How to get the new shields:

What the shields look like:

Stats Gained:

Equip Bonus:

Special Abilities:

I'm after shields that'll help make shields better and stronger:

Alchemy

Blacksmithing

Cooking Upgrading Idea - Absorbing food to gain recipes

Jewelcrafting

Skinning/Dismantling

Enchanting

Leatherworking

Tailoring

Fishing


	7. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note:**_ In this chapter, we'll see a slight crossover with the games Darksiders. Now, before any of you moan about how I wrote Erhard, I want to point something out that you might be missing: Naofumi is going to be evil in this story or that's my plan anyway. And for that reason, I'm writing Erhard the way I am, as I don't see him helping an evil Naofumi, so I'm trying to make sure that it won't happen like that. I'm sorry if you are a fan of his, I like him too, but as I said I don't see him helping an evil Naofumi, which is why I wrote him as I have.

_**Chapter Six… **_

_**Fallen Fame!**_

As the young man left the castle, Naofumi walked into the town where people were giving him dirty looks, looks that told the young Shield Hero that they wanted to hurt and kill him. He hated it… if it wasn't for the fact that he had to save this damn world to return home, he would be more than happy to destroy this place. For now, he had to keep his anger, his rage in check, so that he wouldn't do anything foolish.

The first thing he knew he had to do was to get some new clothes, as without them he would be wearing his underclothes, something his rep couldn't afford right now. His name was already known in a bad light, he didn't want to make things worse by looking like he didn't care what he was wearing. Thinking about what the bitch Myne stole from him, he was glad that he unlock the _**Treasury Shield **_the night before, otherwise, he would be in trouble. He wouldn't have the money to do many things.

Going to the clothing shop, the female tailor looked at him with a dark look, as she said a sneer, "What do you want Shield Hero?"

"What does it look like?" Naofumi replied with his own sneer, "I'm after some clothing."

"You're not welcome here." the tailor told him darkly, "I'll not serve a rapist or a woman better in my shop."

And before he could say anything, the tailor used some magic to kick the Shield out of the shop. This happened within a few shops, now of the tailors wanted to serve him, instead, forcing him out of the shops in one way or another, either by magic or having one of the adventurers forcing him out of the store.

It wasn't until he got to the fifth store, a second-hand clothing shop that a tailor was willing to serve him and that's only because they had no option about it. As the store wasn't doing well, so they were forced to serve to those that they didn't want to, even scum like him. He got himself a dark green flex linen tunic with gold timings, he also got a dark blue pair of trousers. He also got a dark green hooded cape with greyish fur around the collar which had a dragon-like medallion to connect the cape. He also brought a pair of brown boots. They were a bit worn, but nothing too bad.

The problem was that instead of fifty copper coins for the lot, he had to pay one silver and fifty copper coins. When asked about this, the tailor told him that he might have to serve him, but there was nothing stopping them from overcharging him. This piss Naofumi off even more, but needing new clothes, he had no option but to pay for the clothes.

The problem was that the tailors weren't the only ones who wouldn't serve him, other stores wouldn't either. As the rumours about him, raping and beating the princess, spread like wildlife… the rumour was around the town in a few hours. With how fast the rumour had spread, Naofumi realized that the rumour would have been out and about hours before he got accused of raping the bitch.

Naofumi had no idea what he did for them to hate him, but knew his life would be hard for him now. Like with getting new clothes, where his new outfit cost him more than it should have. Three times the price as it should be. Naofumi was just thankful that the cape had a low _**Thermal Resistance**_ ability on it, enough to keep him warm during the cold days and cool in the hot days.

If the shops were going to cost him a lot, he knew that inns would be just the same, so he went to the shops to get himself a tent, even though he knew it would be expensive. But if it was expensive, Naofumi that in the long run, it would be cheaper in the long run as he wouldn't have to pay for an inn every night. For the long run Naofumi brought a four-berth tent, as he knew that whilst he wasn't planning to get companions just yet, he knew that sooner or later he would have to. As without some, he knew he wouldn't be able to defeat the stronger monsters that he'll be facing to level up or in the waves. But at the moment he had problems trusting in people of this land, so it would be some time before he would get companions again, but he felt better to get the tent now than later.

The only other problem he would have was food, he didn't want to have to go to buy food from people who are just going to overcharge him for it, especially given how he had other options. One such option was fishing, he was lucky enough he knew of a spot near a river that he could fish at or even better set up a net to catch fish. Not only that, but he could also make some low-tier traps to capture some of the animals and monsters for food. But to do that, he needed to buy the netting and staff to make the traps, even a fishing rod. Which set him back another silver coin.

As he was shopping, he realized that if he wanted an easier time in this world, he had to do something to earn these people respect. But there's part of him that didn't want to. If they were so easily persuaded that someone could do such a thing without a trail from a few words from their king, then why should he save them? What's stopping the same thing happening again down the line?

But at the same time, even if he wanted to, the problem was he didn't know enough about this world or even country that he was in to start repairing his reputation or make a new one. He had only been here for less than three days, there was no way he could have stepped on someone's foot within that time limit to earn this sort of action to ruin his reputation before he could gain one. So that meant that the princess and the people around him had a problem with something that was connected to him, most likely the damn shield he was stuck with, so they were using him as a scapegoat for some reason.

But if it is the shield that was the problem, how would he be able to fix that problem. The only known way was good old hard work, but the question that he asked himself earlier reminded: if he was able to rebuild his reputation, what's stopping the same thing happening again down the line? The people of this town had shown him how easy it was to convince them he had done something wrong with a few simple words.

So with this and how they were treating him, he had to wonder, would all the hard work he would have to do would be worth it? Other than regaining his good name, what was the point to it all? No, he shouldn't think like that, as much as he hated them, he needed to play somewhat nice so that he could be sent home when all this was done.

He would deal with this later, for now, he had to level up and catch up to the other heroes. As he was walking towards the plains to level up, he remembered a few people trying to talk to him. But the problem was that he wasn't in the mood for talking to people, he wasn't ready, he needed to clear his mind before he talked to anyone. Right now most people wanted to try and hurt him and say hush words, something he didn't want to deal with. So he told them to leave him alone.

_**o0OoO0o**_

What Naofumi didn't realize was that one of the cloaked groups he was sending away, were representatives from Siltvelt, who saw the Shield Hero as a God. If he had taken a few minutes to talk to them, he could have been taken away from that kingdom and went to Siltvelt where he would be treated as a god. But then again, if he did talk to them and left with them, he wouldn't become as strong as he would be by staying here, as he wouldn't be fighting to become stronger. But that was a different story altogether.

For our story, by sending the representatives of Siltvelt away, the group went to the inn that they were staying in to report back to their superiors by the use of magical crystals. When they used the Communications Crystal, a shadowy figure appeared in it and the person said, "Shika, report!"

"My lord, I'm sorry to say that our mission to talk to the new Shield Hero was a failure," the hooded person now known as Shika, "when we tried to talk to him, he sent us away and told us he didn't want to talk to us or anyone else."

"Hmm," hummed the shadowy figure thoughtful, "why is this? What has happened there?"

"Well you see my Lord…" and with that Shika explained what was going on, the rumour about Naofumi raping and beating the princess of Melromarc and how people were treating the Shield Hero badly because of this. Shika told his lord that from their own investigation, the story was a lie and was set up to keep the Shield Hero weak and be as an outcast.

"Those damn fuck fools…" hissed Shika's lord, "are they trying to start a damn war again. If the other's learn of this, they'll more than likely want to go to war over this, damn it. Shika, when you get back, I want you and the others to keep a low profile. I don't want the other councillor to learn of this until I can deal with this problem."

"I understand my lord." Shika said as he bowed to the Communications Crystal.

"Now Shika, I have to ask you this, what were you thinking? Talking to the Shield Hero after you learned what has happened." the shadowy figure asked.

"My Lord?" asked Shika confused, he didn't know what he had done wrong here.

"If you were the Shield Hero and was framed for something that you haven't done, would you want to talk to anyone? Or would you send anyone who tried to talk to you away?" asked Shika's lord, "Wouldn't you be angry and distrusting of everyone, seeing how you were just summoned to our world, but only to be framed by the people you were summoned by? If I had to guess, he wants to deal with no one at the moment, thinking that they too would betray you too if they had the chance."

As Shika thought about it like that, he realized his mistake and said with another bow, "Forgive me, my Lord, I didn't think about it like that, I thought that it was better to talk to him and get him to Siltvelt as soon as possible."

"Under normal circumstances, it would have been the right thing to do," admitted the lord, "but with things as they were, you had a bad hand. But at least you have learned something so that if such things happen again, you know what to do."

"So my Lord, do you want me to wait for a while before I try and contact him again?" asked Shika.

"Under normal circumstances I would say yes, but we don't have normal circumstances so doing so will be impossible." the Lord explained, "As by the time that happens, Queen Mirellia will try and prevent him from coming to Siltvelt out of fears that we would use him to start a war with them. Not only that, but she'll most likely to try and use him in a political way to being her country and ours together. Whichever way, she'll make it hard for us to get near to him real soon."

"So what is the plan my Lord?" asked Shika.

For the next few moments there was nothing but silence from the Communications Crystal, before the shadowy figure said, "I do have an idea…" and with that, the Shika's Lord explained his idea to Shika.

When the lord was finished, Shika was unsure about it, as it meant sacrificing a member of his group. "My Lord, are you sure there's no other way?"

"Honestly, not one that I can think of right now," the lord admitted grimly, "we have little time before the Queen or the King finds out about us and forces us out of this kingdom. This way, we'll have someone next to the Shield Hero who could lead him to us, or at the very least let the Shield Hero our side of things."

"What if he just uses her?" asked Shika.

"Then at least we were able to help the Shield Hero somehow," explained the shadowy figure, "it is our place to help him in any way possible. If it means giving him one of us to help him, so be it, it's unlike we are able to help him as much as we want to."

"You're right, it's the very least we can do," admitted Shika after some thought, "but it doesn't mean I can't worry for her."

"I understand, I worry for her too, she is my daughter after all," admitted the lord, "but because of this, I know she's the only one I can trust with this. The only one who I can trust to protect the Shield Hero." Then there was a moment of silence when the shadowy figure said, "Shika, I have to go, I have a meeting to attend to, I'll send my daughter to you within a week."

"Understood my Lord," Shika said with a bow, "I'll return when everything is done here."

And with that, the power of the Communications Crystal went and left Shika standing there, where after a few deep breaths went to deal with his lords plan to help the Shield Hero.

_**o0OoO0o**_

Whilst plans were being made for Naofumi, the young Shield Hero was out in the fields trying to level up. He only had ten experience points to go. So he needed to face ten Balloon Monsters, something that wouldn't take long with using traps. But before he did use them though, he wanted to see what his attack was like without the extra attack points. It was worse than he expected. Instead of taking three minutes to defeat one Balloon Monster, it took him seven minutes to defeat one of the damn Orange Balloons.

Naofumi couldn't believe how much harder it was to defeat them without his gloves. He was thankful that he wasn't able to take any damage no matter how much they attacked, meant it was relatively easy to work.

So to level up, Naofumi used spikes to gain the last nine exp he needed, it took about ten minutes to defeat twelve different kinds of Balloon Monsters. He was thankful he learned about this trick or otherwise he feared that he wouldn't be this far nor level up when he did.

Upon levelling up, a screen appeared in front of him:

_**LEVELLED UP!**_

_+10 Health!_

_+10 Defence!_

_+5 Magic Defence!_

_+5 Magic Attack!_

_+5 Skill Points_

_+3 Attribute Points_

_Orange Small Shield, Yellow Small Shield, Red Small and Leaf Shield Unlocked!_

Naofumi had to admit that when he levelled up, he thought that he would only get a notice to say he levelled up and nothing more other than the shields he was now able to use. To get some stats was a great bonus to him. Although, he was hoping to get some more attack points, but what he got wasn't too bad for his first level up. He had hoped for more but considering that he had a Shield for a weapon, it was the best he could hope for.

But seeing the magic attack there give him some hope, he would have to look up about magic and see what magic attacks he could learn. But he wasn't expecting much, he didn't think his luck would hold up to strong magical attacks, but to be honest, though, any form of attack power was better than nothing.

He was happy to see that he was able to unlock a few of his shields.

Wondering how many EXP he needed to get to level three, he opened his EXP screen.

_**Level 3:**_

_3/240_

Naofumi sighed as he saw this, it would seem that he had to get just under two hundred and forty EXP to level up again. Whilst he had the _**Tantric Shield**_, to help him summon more monsters, he knew that before long the weak assed Balloon monster would help him to level up and would have to find something stronger to fight. This lead to his attack points. Sure the spikes that he is using would be useful, but sooner or later, they'll become less useful as the monsters' levels get higher.

Because right now, the spikes whilst able to pop the Balloon Monsters, it was because they were weak and full of air, so they wear easy to deal with, with the spikes he was using. Soon he would be dealing with tougher monsters, monsters that were made from flash and bones and tougher skin, not counting their higher levels or/and defence/HP. Without his armour, the once Red Balloons that he had an easy time with, became a handful. Not enough to be a real problem, but he could feel their baits a bit more than before and without the spikes, they would be more of a problem.

But this was something he would have to deal with later on, for now though, he had too much on his mind to think about this. He needed to clear his mind before he could even think about making new traps and finding ways to level up easier.

Over the next few hours, Naofumi found that the biggest problem he now faced was that their speed. It would seem that without his boots, he is much slower than before. Over the next few hours, he was only able to defeat about ninety Balloon Monsters. He would have liked to have done more, but the problem is that the Monsters were harder to defeat with his lack of attack points and them being faster. Not only that, but he was only able to use his _**Tantric Shield **_about eight times as each time he used the shield it took five Spirit Points and it took some time to recover the points, and only summoned between five and eight Balloon Monsters. Not even the bonus from his _**Appraisal Shield **_helped when the appraisal for the Balloon Monster had gotten to %100.

Although, during the day when he was fighting the Balloon Monsters, he was pleased that the problems that he had helped to take his mind off what happened that morning. Well, it helped for a short while anyway, as he soon remembered that the reason he was like this was because of that bitch Myne for accusing him of rape and beating her up. Remembering this made him want to use his fests defeat the Monsters instead of the spikes. Sure it took longer, but it helped with his frustration, as he had no other way to deal with it.

By the time Naofumi decided to take a break and sell the balloon scraps that he got, he was able to master the Equipment Bonus from two shields, the _**Appraisal Shield**_ and the _**Treasury Shield**_. It wasn't much, but at least now he didn't have to keep either of the shield equipped to have their bonuses. The only time he would need to equip the _**Appraisal Shield **_is for when he needed to use its Appraisal ability.

As he walked back to the town, he had to admit that he felt slightly better than he did that morning. Sure he still hated the trash King and the other Heroes, along with that bitch Myna, but he had somewhat calmed down for now. Sure, he was pissed at the townspeople for treating him as trash, but he couldn't put the full blame on them, they were reacting to the lies that they heard.

As he was returning to town though, he realized that he was feeling starving, so planned to get something to eat after selling what he had.

But as the young hero entered the tavern to get some food, he saw that it was full and most of the people were giving him dark looks. Looks like they wanted to slowly kill him. As Naofumi walked up to the counter, the person behind it sneered at him and said darkly, "Get out of here, we don't serve a raping woman beating scum like you here."

Naofumi sighed at this, not wanting to get into a fight over this, all he wants to do is to eat and drink something. "Listen, I don't want any trouble, all I want is something to eat and drink, so please give me what I want and I will leave."

"And I told you that we don't serve scum like you here." the person told him, "So leave now or we'll find out how much your shield can really withstand."

At this Naofumi looked around to see many of the adventurers having standing up and cracking their knuckles, happily getting ready for a fight. Naofumi could only sigh, he could see those in the dark corner of the tavern where hooded people were eating trying not to get attention drawn to them. The Shielder expected that these were criminals or those with shady business dealings going on here, but they were being left alone. But here he was, an innocent man who had nothing wrong, being treated like scum all because a fucking bitch princess decided to ruin his life for unknown reasons with sick lies.

Now if it was one maybe two adventurers, he might be able to deal with this. But a full tavern of adventurers who want to kick the living daylights out of him, no, he wasn't that foolish, even he knew when to retreat when facing something like this. So with a sigh, Naofumi stood and left the damn tavern, angry at how he was being treated.

So seeing how he couldn't buy something to eat and drink, he decided to sell the balloon scrap that he got that day. So he went off to the merchant that dealt with monster materials. At least with this, if things didn't go his way, he had a plan ready, that's as long as there were no guards were about.

As Naofumi got to the monster materials merchant, the merchant was a plump little man with dusty blonde hair and upon the merchant seeing the Shield Hero, and he let out a phoney, unpleasant laugh upon seeing Naofumi. Naofumi had an awful thought that this merchant was planning to rip him off.

There was one person in line in front of Naofumi, selling various materials.

"Hmm, yes... how does one copper coin for two pieces sound?" asked the merchant. The merchant pointed at the orange balloon scraps on the counter and assessed their value.

'_Hmm, so the going rate was half a copper coin apiece, huh?' _Naofumi thought to himself when he heard the price.

"That sounds good." the customer agreed with the price.

"Thank you for your patronage." the merchant said as he counted out the copper coins for the man.

After the merchant he counted out the coins, the customer left and Naofumi walked passed him and stood in front of the merchant and said, "Hey. I've brought some balloon scraps that I wanna sell."

"Of course, welcome, welcome." the merchant greeted with greed in his eyes, upon seeing the Balloon scraps that Naofumi placed on the top, the merchant said, "Ah, yes. Balloon scraps, huh? I can offer you... how does one copper coin for ten pieces sound?"

'_The fucking bastard,' _Naofumi thought with a sneer,_ 'A fifth of the value! What kind of rip-off was this!?'_

"Didn't you just buy the same thing from the last guy for a lot more?" Naofumi asked politely, try to do this nicely.

"So what if I did?" the merchant asked with a smirk, "Unlike you, he wasn't a criminal nor scum, so I can charge you whatever I like."

If Naofumi allowed things to keep going like this, the damn merchant would probably try to overcharge him even more and telling him that he couldn't do a thing about it, seeing how he was a criminal. So he had one of two options, allow this man try to extort him and get nothing out of his sells, or he can act like the criminal the bitch and king portrayed him as and force him to pay the same amount as the last person he served.

But by doing this though, he knew that it would make things harder for him in the long run, as he would gain a new reputation alright but not the one that he wanted though. It would be one of infamous, making him out to be the criminal that they believed he was. But he knew that if he didn't, he would have the rest of the people in the town, even the kingdom, think he was a pushover and that they could get one over him.

He knew that if he didn't, the money that he had would be gone sooner then he would have liked, and without a way to replenish it, he would have trouble and might get killed during the first wave without the right equipment and supplies. It didn't take him long for him to decide on what path he would take. He tried all day to be nice to the townspeople, show that he wasn't like the rumours said he was, but all they did was to overcharge him, look down on him threaten him and now trying to underpay him. If he didn't do something, well, he didn't want to think about it.

All he wanted was to survive and so that he could be sent home when this was over. If it meant that he had to become a criminal, or at the very least act like one to live through all this, so be it. Right now, if these people didn't want to listen to him and treat him like scum, he wouldn't try and play nice. He didn't have the time nor the patience to deal to make them see otherwise, at least not after how he was treated that day. He had enough and it was time to change things, show them that he wasn't going to be pushed around.

"Hmph. Well then." Naofumi said with a dark smirk as he grabbed the merchant by his collar and pulled merchant towards him.

"Guh, w-what are you…" the merchant tried to ask fearfully.

"Why don't you buy these guys, too? They're much fresher." Naofumi asked darkly, as he pulled the merchant under his cape. There were a chomping sound and sound of snarling from a few Balloon Monsters that were clamping onto the merchant's face.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the merchant screamed in fear, "HEEELLLPPP!"

After letting the merchant thrash about for a bit, Naofumi roughly pried the monster off and gave him a kick.

"How about we drag you out to the edge of town and do our business there?" Naofumi asked with a smirk, "I've got plenty more products in stock that I'd love you to take a look at."

Naofumi showed off the five Balloons he had hidden under his cape.

It was something Naofumi had thought of back in the plains. If it didn't hurt no matter how much they bit him, so why not let them? And with how the people were treating him that morning, he realized he could tear them off and stick them on whoever pissed him off. He believed that it was rather brilliant if he did say so himself. And great for negotiations too, they should keep the store keeps from underpaying or overcharging him.

He knew that both his and the Balloon Attack points were low, but these damn Balloons have more attack then he has and seem to hurt people. Something he can't do it right now, so made it impossible for him to threaten people directly. Without being able to hurt them, nobody would take him seriously.

This guy probably realized that as well. But even so, when Naofumi implemented his special tactic he was able to make a future where the merchant was devoured without a trace by Balloons flash before his eyes.

"I'm not going to force you to hand over all your money or anything," Naofumi informed the merchant "but if you don't at least give me market price things could get messy. I'm also expecting at least twenty-five percent more for this deal, as an apology for trying to rip me off."

"You can't do this…" began the merchant.

"Why not?" asked Naofumi, "You seem to be able to try and extort me, so why can't I do the same with you? Not only that but what if I spread rumours that you're ripping off adventurers, what do you think will happen? People seem to believe rumours very well in this world, so I don't think it would be that hard to make people believe you would do such a thing."

Naofumi told the ass with a smirk. He knew that for a merchant like this one, reputation to adventurers was everything. If he had tried to pull a stunt like this with any other adventurer he would have gotten walloped for sure, and probably would have lost a customer to boot. So any bad rumours about him would mean the end of the merchant.

"Guh..." the merchant growled at this, with fury within his eyes at being blackmailed, but as he thought about it, he finally relented and slumped his shoulders. As he knew there was nothing he could do, not if he wanted to keep his business going. So he was forced to give the damn Shield Hero sixty-three copper coins.

As Naofumi took the coins and place them in his new coin bag, he said with a sneer, "Oh, and tell everybody you know about what happened here. I want every merchant in the city to know that messing with means turning into a Balloon snack." With that Naofumi left the threat there as he walked away, to see if he could get some armour.

"Right, right. Whatever you want, you son of a bitch." mattered the merchant, unhappy about what happened there. He would have to speak to the merchants and see if there's anything they could do to stop this.

_**o0OoO0o**_

As he was making his way to the Weapon Shop that he went to yesterday, he heard a voice call out angrily, "You Shield Hero bastard."

Looking round to see who was calling him names this time, he only had time to see it was Erhard who threw a punch into Naofumi's stomach. Which knocked the wind out of the Shield Hero. This shocked the young man, as up 'til now he felt no pain from any of the monsters or from the things that the rest of the townspeople threw at him during the last day. Before Naofumi could even think he took a step back watching his stomach and kneeled on the ground coughing and trying not to throw up as he stared up at Erhard angry and disappointed look.

The townspeople just smirked and watched as this was happening, Naofumi believed that he saw looks in some of their eyes that they hoped that Erhard would severely hurt him, or hopefully kill him.

After a moment to catch his breath and not puke all over the ground Naofumi had to collect his thoughts from the pain and focused on wonder what the hell was Erhard's level and strength for him to bypass his high defences like he did, not even the guards back at the castle was able to do what he just did.

"I heard what you done to your companion you fucking scum." Erhard told Naofumi, "I thought you weren't like that, that you were a kind and honest person, who wouldn't do such things to his companions."

"Y, you too huh…" Naofumi said as he coughed in pain, it was strange, this was the first time in this world that he felt any pain.

It would seem that No one wanted to listen to him. No one wanted to believe what he says. Granted, he was from another world and the common sensibilities of this land were a mystery to him. But even then, Naofumi was not the type of person to force himself on a woman. No way! That was below anything that his parents ever taught him, sure he didn't get along with them and disagreed with them with many things, but there was one thing he did agree with them - you don't force yourself onto a women.

He felt sick, everyone believed the lie about him, none of them wanted to hear his side of things and see if it was true or not. Not even Erhard, the weapon shop owner, he felt that he could trust him when he first met the man, but no, by the looks of things, he was wrong there too.

But he had to try, try and get at least one person to believe him when many others wouldn't. "Erhard, I know what you heard, but it's all lies, I -" Naofumi tried to defend himself and tell the truth of what really happened, but as he did though, Erhard hit him once again, this time, in the Shield Hero's face. Right now, on his knees spitting blood out of his mouth, he wanted nothing more than to kill him, Naofumi knew that if he wanted to, he could probably be able to, even with his low attack power, what human could survive with their nicks twisted or a well-placed punch. He knew many people in his world died this way.

As he curled his hand into a fist and glared at the man, Erhard sneered at him as he said, "Why would I listen to the lies of some scumbag who rapes and beats a woman? You'll say anything to get away from doing such things."

Here Naofumi saw that Erhard was about to kick him, but before the kick could hit the Shield Hero though, a huge hand stopped him, a hand which was about two feet big. Lookat up to see who the hand belonged to, he saw something that shocked him. A dwarf like person wearing blacksmiths clothing, but unlike normal dwarves that he knew of, which were between three foot and a half to just over four foot and a half, this one looked about double the size than he was. He had a face which looked like it was made in a forge, with amber short hair and beard side-burns. On his back, there was a huge hammer attached to it.

"Erhard, what the hell are you playing at?" a deep booming like voice came from the huge dwarf.

"He raped and beat his female companion." Erhard explained darkly, he might have been fine if the story was just about rape, as he would expect that the young less didn't like the idea of not getting her own way and so decided to get revenge on the young man by crying rape, but he couldn't see why a girl like her who seem to care about her looks would beat herself to frame the Shield Hero even if it was in this country with its stupid religion.

"I've heard the story and seen the so called evidence Erhard," admitted the huge dwarf like person, "but you know how this country is, you should at least let the boy tell you his side of things. As they say, there's normal two sides of a story. So before you start beating the young led to a bloody pulp, hear him out." the huge dwarf tried to reason the other blacksmith, "You're the one who told me about him buying equipment from you and the female in question, you said that he looked at like a trustworthy fellow but a little naive. We both know that, whilst rare, there are girls like to make trouble for adventurers like the Shield Hero here, by telling lies." He didn't want to let it slip that he knew who the girl was, as if the townspeople find out that it was the damn princess who said this, there would be outrage and an outcry for the Shield Hero's blood.

"Ulthane, you're right, there have been woman like that," admitted Erhard, "but none of them ever beat themselves up just to frame someone!" admitted Erhard "And why the hell are you even caring? Usually you don't get involved with other people's confluence or problems other than just making them any tool you think they might need?"

"That is true, normally my race doesn't interfere with other people's business, we're the type that stay neutral and help either side. We only take sides if the balance is threatened." explained Ulthane.

"So why help the raping bastard?" asked Erhard, unable to believe that someone like Ulthane would place himself in a conflict when normally would keep himself to himself and not bother with what was going on.

"Because he is a Summoned Cardinal Hero," the giant told the other blacksmith, "for him to be summoned as a hero, he needed to have qualities of a hero, compassion, loyalty just naming a few treats. So I find it hard to believe that the Shield Hero would do such a thing."

"That might be the case in their world, but we've heard about the side-effects that happens when they are summoned here," Erhard told Ulthane, "the one that gives them memory problems and personality changes. So how do we know that one of these side-effects didn't alter him so that makes him into something like a villain."

"You really believe that such side-effects would change a person that much?" Ulthane asked in disbelief.

"We don't know, but anything is possible," reasoned Erhard, "that's better reason than why a women would beat herself up. Come on, have you ever heard of a woman beating herself up?"

"No," admitted Ulthane, "but it doesn't mean they didn't, remember, men of this world are executed for such things."

"Just like the Shield Hero should have been." one of the townspeople called out.

Ulthane just sighed at this, realizing that no matter what he says, they'll think that the young Shield Hero is the villain. So with another sigh he said, "Fine, seeing how I can't change your mind over this, I'll leave you be. But I'll be taking the Shield Hero with me. There's an ominous storm brewing and the Shield Hero here is in the centre of it, how bad of the storm depends on your actions here right this moment."

Here a few of people stepped back, as the last few times that Ulthane mentioned about ominous storms brewing, some sort of disaster happens to the kingdom. So to hear one surrounding the Shield Hero, they backed off a bit. Worried as to what would happen if they didn't.

"You and your ominous storms!" Erhard said with a sigh, unhappy about this turn around of things. "You do realize that the Waves of Calamity are happening so your ominous storm Prediction is kind of late and crappy."

"The Waves of Calamity is just part of the storm," admitted Ulthane with a smirk, "the Four Cardinal Heroes also are part of this storm. Whatever happens to them also affects the storm too, so you decide, have a rough but durable storm or a storm that's rough and uncontrollable, A storm to end all storms?"

Now Erhard wasn't too sure what to think about this, if what happens to Four Cardinal Heroes affects the Waves, it was best to act on the air of caution. At least until they knew for sure. So with a sigh of frustration he said, "Fine, take the damn rapist. But know this, he'll be watched and any crimes or misdeeds will be down to you."

"I'm more than happy to take care of him." said Ulthane, as he helped Naofumi of the ground and the two walked away.

The crowd wasn't pleased with how the situation was handled, they were hoping that Erhard would beat the Shield Hero to a pulp, showing him what they all thought of him. But with Ulthane siding with him, they knew better than to make the giant mad, so all they could do was to disperse and get on with their day.

_**o0OoO0o**_

As Ulthane lead Naofumi outside the town, Naofumi said, "Thanks for the help back there, but why did you do it?" He wasn't trying to be rude, but after the day that he had, he had problems trusting people right now. For someone to help him without reason, he couldn't help but be suspicious. "That bastard Erhard said that you are normally stayed neutral in such things."

"It's as I told Erhard, I helped you because you're one of the Four Cardinal Heroes." explained Ulthane, "What those fools didn't realize is that should you die, it'll be near impossible for the other three Cardinal Heroes to defeat the Waves of Calamity. All four of you are needed to save this world."

"You gotta be kidding me, you mean I really have to work with those three assholes, and it's not something the damn king made up to keep me here?" Naofumi asked in shock and anger, he didn't think that the king was lying to him that he had to work with the other heroes, but part of him thought it could have been a twisted punishment for the so called rape on his daughter. The problem was that he didn't think he could work with the three of them after what they have done to him.

"I didn't say that you have to like them or anything, nor do you have to spend your free time with them." Ulthane told the Shield Hero, "But if there's any chance of you going home, you'll need to live through the Waves, which means that you'll have to work with the other heroes too."

Before he could think about this, Naofumi found himself in a tree garden, where he and Ulthane was in front of a group of huge tree stumps that seemed to look like a man's faces. The stump was twice the size of Ulthane. Ulthane stood in front of one of them and taking his hammer from his back where he slammed it onto the ground. As he did, a magical wave came from it and one of the tree stump mouths opened, showing steps going down into the ground. As they walked through the mouth and walked down the steps, the mouth closed behind them.

As they got to the bottom, Naofumi eyes grew wide as he could not believe the sight in front of him, he was grateful that he was wearing his thermal cloak. As when he entered the room, he saw a powerful forge which was powered by lava with waterfalls carved into the side redirecting water to specific locations in the Forge. He had to guess that as the reason why he didn't notice the sheer heat at first, was because of the cloak.

Just by looking around, Naofumi could see many weapons of different makes and models lying on the wall, some were ancient, but they looked like they could still be used for a great war. The others look brand-new and more powerful than he could ever imagine.

Ulthane went to one of the draws and took two glasses out and a flask of of it and poured the two of them a drink. Whilst Ulthane seemed nice enough, but with how people have been treating him all day and how Erhard tried to kick him to a pulp, he couldn't help but look at the drink with suspicion, which made Ulthane roll his eyes before drinking some of it and handing it back to the Shield Hero.

With a smile, Naofumi took the drink before slowly sipping at it, but with just a slip, it made his eyes go wide and he nearly spat out the drink. "Oh my God!" Naofumi grasped as he caught his breath, grimacing at the taste making him shiver and stick out his tongue. He had to admit, he had never tasted anything like this before, in fact, he normally didn't taste anything when he drank alcohol before. It was bland to him. This was some alcohol for him to taste it. "What kind of foul concoction is that!"

"Hahaha," laughed Ulthane as he took a slip of his drink, "it's a family recipe guaranteed to put hair on your chest and to warm you up in the coldest of winters, also not bad for making a bad day a little bit better. So how about you tell me your side of the story, what really happened with you and the princess?"

"You know that the damn bitch was a princess?" Naofumi asked in shock, "How do you know and the rest of the damn town didn't?"

"The reason as to why they don't know about the princess, is two reason," explained Ulthane, "the first is that no one outside the castle has ever really seen her. Her parents protect their children, so that no one knows what they look like until they are eighteen. Which leads to the second reason why no one knew about her, so that she could go out and about is that the children use another name to go by when outside the castle, for Malty the Princess that you met it's Mein Sophia."

"So I take it that there's at least a Second Princess?" Naofumi asked in concern, worried about another royal bitch to fuck him over somehow.

"That there is, but I don't know her name." Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, "I only know about the Malty because I saw her at the castle one time and technically speaking, whilst Malty is known as the First Princess and you expect her to become the next Queen, that's not true. There's some kind of scandal, and whilst I'm not too sure what it is, I do know that the Nobles seems to know. All I know is that it's how she treats men. Because of this, she was pushed back from inheriting the throne to her younger sister. So, your story?"

Naofumi couldn't help but to smark at this, seeing that Myne wasn't going to be Queen. But he had to wonder if the Second Princess was like her sister. Either way, he sighed before he told Ulthane his tail seeming to feel a little bit better after speaking to the giant dwarf, sure not by much but some. He felt a bit more calmer for the first time that day finally being able to just relax for a little bit. Don't get him wrong, he didn't trust Ulthane fully, he wasn't going to do that again in this world, but at least he got someone who seems to be on his side for now.

"Damn boy, that is rough. She totally screwed you." Ulthane whistled as he heard the story, "I heard the stories that she uses men to her own needs, but I never thought she would go this far."

"Yeah, she screwed me alright." Naofumi admitted darkly, unhappy about what she did to him, "Anyway, I have a question for you, you seem to know more about these Waves than most I have spoken with so far, how is this? How much of this do you know about this."

"Sadly not as much as you nor I would like." Ulthane said with a deep sigh, "Before I say more, what do you know about the summoning?"

"Other than that me and the other three came from alternate earths and timelines, I don't know anything." Naofumi informed the blacksmith.

"Well, that's good for our talks." Ulthane said with a sad smile, "So would it be surprising if I told you that I came from another world?"

"How is that possible?" asked Naofumi in shock, "I thought that the only people who can come to this world are those who are summoned here."

"That's not totally true," Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, "do you know why the Waves happen?"

"No, I have been wondering about this myself, but I have no idea." Naofumi admitted thoughtfully.

"I don't know the full story myself, but I know this, the Waves are one big game to some powerful unknown deity." explained Ulthane, "That this deity pits two worlds against each other, sending Waves to each world to see which world be destroyed first, the surviving world would live on and the Waves would stop, whilst the world that lost will have the world destroyed. This deity has done this to multiple worlds over time, pitting two worlds against each other - who knows how long they have been doing this. There was another thing to this so-called game, the people on these worlds had two options, either save the world or save the people."

"That saying, I heard of them before somewhere." Naofumi admitted as he remembered a dream, it was fike, he couldn't remember it all, but he remembered that saying clearly. "I thought it was one and the same, that if you save the world you would save the people."

"At any other time you would be right," admitted Ulthane, "but the problem is that in this so-called game, it's not. In this game, by saving the world would mean sacrificing many people to do so, but saving the people would mean sacrificing a world."

"How would sacrificing people would save the world?" asked a shocked Naofumi.

"That I don't know, as the people my world decided to save its people instead of saving our world, by coming to this world." explained Ulthane.

"Why would they give up their world for?" asked Naofumi. Whilst he happy that they did this, he was shocked that they would give up their homeworld.

Ulthane sighed at this, "Well, this happened about eight hundred years when my great grandfather, Grandfather Ulthane came to this world."

"Don't you mean your great, great, great whatever grandfather?" asked Naofumi, a bit confused about this.

"No, I mean my father's, father's, father," Ulthane informed Naofumi, "you see my race age differently than most races. Whilst I might not look like it, the fact is, I am just over one hundred and fifty years old. You could say I'm still a child, at least in the eyes of my race, one of my race is over a billion of years old, at least that's what I was told anyway."

Naofumi was shocked when he heard this, he couldn't believe that such people were able to live for so long. He was unable to think what to say to this, so he asked the next best thing, "So why did your great grandfather and the people of his world came to this one?"

"Because our world was more or less dead anyway," explained Ulthane, "you see when the Waves hit my great grandfather's world, it was rebuilding the world after the Apocalypse."

"What do you mean they were rebuilding the world after an Apocalypse?" asked Naofumi.

"Well, that's where my story begins…" said Ulthane.

Here Ulthane began the story of his world, wherein his universe, demons, angels, devils and gods were real. Learning this shocked Naofumi, sure he learned that alternate universes were real, but he wasn't expecting that demons, angels, devils and gods were real too. But then again, he shouldn't be too surprised about it, with alternate universes, who knows what were in them and what sort of magic was used.

Either way, Ulthane went on to explain about his Great Grandfather Ulthane, where he was convinced by an Archangel Abaddon, the former leader of the Hellguard, the great warriors of Heaven, to go along with Abaddon's plan. A plan to end demons and devils before the End War could even begin.

When asked what the plan was, Ulthane admitted that he wasn't too sure. But the story was that the Angel of Death known as Azrael would destroy six of the seven Seals, which should summon the demons and devils but not to start the End War. Then Abaddon would use the Hellguard to defeat the demons and devils for _'breaking the peace treaty,' _when in fact they didn't and were just answering the summoning of the seals being broken. Then the final part of the plan was that his Great Grandfather would fix the seals before anyone could check them should the demons say that they were summoned by the breaking of the seals, they would find the seals would be as if they won't broken and so those from hell lied and so they would be taken down for breaking the treaty.

Reasons to how Lilith found out about the plan was unsure, some believe that she wanted revenge for what happened to her children. Another reason was that she was following the orders from the Dark Prince, Lucifer. No really knew the truth about it, at least My Great Grandfather didn't know.

But their plan didn't turn out the way that they wanted, as what they didn't know, and something that Ulthane's Great Grandfather found out much later, was that Lilith, the mother and creator of the Nephilim, knew about this and was prepared for them. So the battle didn't go as planned, as the Apocalypse happened meaning the end of Mankind. Not only that, but Abaddon became a demon known as the Destroyer along with War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, got framed for starting it all.

War, like the other three Horsemen, were children of Lilith - which meant that they were Nephilim. War, Death, Fury and Strife were enforcers for Charred Council, a powerful force created by the Creator to keep the balance. One thing that the Horsemen did to keep the order was to destroy their own kind, they did this when the Nephilim under Absalom, the Horsemen's older brother, the burned entire Realms in a wrathful crusade for a realm of their own.

Back to Ulthane's story, he went on to explain that his Great Grandfather went into self-exile for his part of the end of Mankind. Over the years the other Horsemen has done their part to return Mankind back to the Realm of Man and to protect them and each other. Over that time, Ulthane's Great Grandfather did what he could to redeem himself in his part of the Apocalypse, by helping Fury and Strife and protecting the humans that were brought back to the world thanks to Death.

It wasn't until about a hundred years after the Apocalypse that Ulthane's Great Grandfather was able to redeem himself fully when War reappeared and was able to help him. During the weeks that War reappeared, he went to search for those who did this to him, in doing so, he defeated the former Archangel Abaddon now Demon Lord Destroyer. Not only that, but War found out another group behind what happened, a group that allowed these things to happen, to him and to Mankind, the Charred Council.

It would seem that the Charred Council new about Abaddon and the conspiracy he and his accomplices had enacted to start the Apocalypse as a preemptive strike against Hell. They considered summoning the Horsemen to handle him, but the Council determined that, without proof, their enforcers would not carry out an execution, but only mass murder: a critical offence to the riders' sense of honour. Instead, they sent War to Earth and framed him for the premature Apocalypse.

They knew that the Horseman would stop at nothing to clear his name and kill everyone involved, thereby silencing all who dared challenge their power along with the wrongfully accused Horsemen when all was said and done. Furthermore, the Council would use this opportunity to further their own goals by using this fix of disloyalty to the pact as a means of furthering their own sources of intrigue against all whom they deemed a threat, such as Humanity whom they knew would one day become the concept they pretended to uphold.

It would seem that the Charred Council feared that Humanity would become a great threat overtime should they be left alone, so the Council knew that they had to do whatever it took to get rid of Mankind, even if it meant the Apocalypse.

But it didn't go their way through, as War broke the Seventh Seal, the one that allowed the Four Horsemen to run free and punish the guilty and regain the balance. It would allow them their full power to do so. So over the following months, the Four Horsemen slowly regained balance, killing the guilty and making sure that Mankind would be fine at the end of it all.

By the end of it all, not only did the Horseman defeated their mother and the Dark Prince, Lucifer, but they also defeated Charred Council. But not by the means that they would have liked, they were too powerful to kill and they were immortal, so the only thing that they could do was to seal them so that they could never do harm again.

Ulthane ended the story by telling Naofumi that after the End War, his Great Grandfather along with others helped Mankind to rebuild. But it wasn't to be though, because a few months later, the Waves of Calamity began. They knew that after what happened to them and how powerful the monsters were, even if they won again, they didn't think they would have enough people to rebuild Mankind. So they did the only thing they could think of, learning that they could transport to another world, it was decided that Mankind along with Ulthane's Great Grandfather and his people and a few others would go to the new world, to Azeroth, and start anew.

"Hum… so what happened to the Horsemen?" asked Naofumi, "And the others their mother, Lucifer and this Charred Council?"

"My people don't know," Ulthane admitted, "all I know is that the Horsemen and a few trusted angels and other allies stayed behind to make sure that most of the demons and the angels that helped to start the Apocalypse stayed behind so that they wouldn't come to this world to create problems here. Sure a few did, not much could do about that, but they kept as many of the most powerful angels and demons from coming here."

"What about your Gods and Devils?" asked Naofumi, worried about facing them.

"No one knows, as they had powers to get them to other worlds if they want, so no one knows what happened to them." explained Ulthane, "As for what happened to the Four Horsemen, whilst they aren't ones easy to kill, especially when they work together, they make them some of the most powerful Defenders that I have ever heard of. However, seeing how we haven't heard from them all these years we fear the worse happened and they died when our old world was destroyed, along with the angels and demons. My family believes that if they were still alive and in this world, they would have made themselves known, especially the demons. These demons won't known for laying low."

"I see." Naofumi simply said, unsure how to react to this, just happy that he wouldn't have to deal with these powerful demons. "So, I mean to ask you, not to be rude, but what is your race? You look like a dwarf from games/movies from my world, but so, so much taller though."

"I know what you mean," Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, "my grandfather told us stories about our old world, it seems like the common idea from the dwarves came from my race somehow. But whoever it was, seemed to want to throw in a little insult and made us into this short creatures, either to make fun of us or they mistook something else for us. We definitely look like what the stories of dwarves what we've heard from multiple worlds, but our race is known as the Makers. Whoever it was who drew us, they got one thing right about us and that's we're great Craftsman and can build anything as long as we have our powerful forge and the right materials."

Naofumi looked at the Maker thoughtfully, the story that he had just heard was amazing and sad, but also he was a bit worried. He was slowly getting his head round with what Ulthane told him, Ulthane's Home World had gone through a lot. His world just got through an Apocalyptic Event and they were rebuilding their world, when all of a sudden this Waves of Calamity appeared and because they were only getting over what happened to them, they decided to leave their world instead. As they didn't have the manpower or the resources to fight on.

He could understand a bit why they did this, they had lost so much already and suddenly a possible second Apocalyptic Event was handed to them. One where they didn't have the manpower or resources and their morale was low, so it was no wonder they would want to start anew in a new world.

Whilst he didn't know the full story of War, he could feel for the Nephilim. But he knew the Horsemen was betrayed by others, got the blame for something he didn't do. Part of him wanted to believe that War fought tooth and nail to redeem himself, but as a Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he more than likely has done much worse. So what he did was for revenge and to make those who had done him wrong pay.

Whilst he didn't know the full story of these Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Naofumi didn't think that they were heroes who saved humanity out of the goodness of their hearts. As Ulthane told him, the Horsemen were there to punish those who were guilty at the time of the Apocalypse. So they could have easily punished someone from humanity along with the angels and demons. From Ulthane they dealt with great threats and keeping the balance, protecting humanity wasn't part of their job description. So for them to help humanity, Naofumi expected that they were either forced or tricked into it or they did it for some other reason.

"Are you sure that there's nothing you can tell me about the Waves or the deity behind them?" asked Naofumi, wanting to get this part of the questioning out of the way.

"Not really no," Ulthane told him, "the only reason that we know about them is because of Elder Eideard informed my Great Grandfather and a few trusted others about the deity."

"Can I see this Elder Eideard?" asked Naofumi, hoping to talk to him, in the hopes that he may know more about the Waves, "And how did he know about them."

"I'm sorry to say that you cannot," Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, "he along with my Great Grandfather and a few other Makers stayed behind to help the Horsemen and the others to make sure humans and a few other races like the Makers could come to this world without problems. So any information about them was lost. As for how Elder Eideard knew about them, it's because the deity sent someone to him to make the Legendary Weapons along with some backup weapons."

"What!?" Naofumi asked in shock, "Does that mean you know how to alter them if needed? And what backup weapons?" Naofumi was hoping that if this Elder Eideard made the Legendary Weapons, he might have left some plans on how they were made and possible how to alter them if needed or if they broke how to fix them. As if they had plans, they might be able to alter his shield so that he could hold weapons.

"Unfortunately no," Ulthane admitted with a deep sigh, "as Elder Eideard kept the details to himself, out of fear that someone might get there hands on the plans like the demons or angels but maybe even something worse than that. All I know is that he made the weapons from Uru, a metal that's near impossible to break and which can change and adapt to the wielders preference when needed. All I know is that Elder Eideard created eight Legendary Weapons and twice as many backup weapons known as Vassal Weapons for the people of that world."

"What are Vassal Weapons?" asked Naofumi.

"Same as Legendary Weapons, but they are less potential in power." explained Ulthane, "Either way, from what I can tell, this deity give each world four Legendary Weapons and eight Vassal Weapons. And the world that is able to beat the waves not only survive the Apocalypse and keep their world going, but also keep the ability to summon the Weapons again, but only so that they can partake in the so-called games again."

"Why do you say that?" asked a worried Naofumi.

"Because, this is the fourth time the Waves hit since my people came to this world, or so I was told." explained the Maker, "I believe the only way for this world to stop having these Waves is for this world to be destroyed."

Naofumi realized that whilst he didn't like this world as much as he hoped, mainly because of how these people have been treating him, this world didn't have much luck. At least five times the Waves hit this world, maybe more. To this world, they had to deal with Waves of Calamity for over eight hundred years. He might hate them, but he couldn't help but to feel sorry for them, he wouldn't wish this sort of thing on his worst enemy.

"Either way, are you sure that there's nothing else you can tell me about these Waves or this Apocalyptic Game?"

Ulthane looked thoughtful as he tried to remember if there was anything his race told him about the Waves or this Apocalyptic Game, as he just shook his head and looked at the Shield Hero and said, "Not much to be honest, there's a rumour that there's a soul of a Maker in each of the Weapons. They were given the ability to send the heroes from summoned worlds a way back home and give certain rewards to them, I don't know if it's true or not."

"How is that possible?" asked Naofumi.

"Because when we die, our souls are too ancient to be drawn to the Kingdom of the Dead, so instead, they somehow make ours souls into something called Heart Stones." explained the Maker, "Depending on how powerful the soul was, it could create a lot of Heart Stones. These Stones normally powers robot-like beings known as Constructs, that are used as warriors and builders. It was said that some Constructs regained its memories. Anyway, watch of these Legendary and Vassal Weapons has a Heart Stone to power them."

"Are you saying that the shield is able to talk to me?" Naofumi asked in shock, but it would explain the strange dream he had with a while back.

"No, not that simple," explained Ulthane, "from what I can understand from those who spoke to the last Cardinal Heroes, they only talk to them at the end of the Waves. To see what reward they want or if they wanted to be sent home or not. The only thing I can tell is that with each Wave, the fights get harder and harder. And should even just one of the Cardinal Heroes die, it would be near impossible to defeat the Waves."

Naofumi wasn't ready for this talk, the small betrayal that they did towards him was too fresh. When he tried to defend himself against the Bitch and the Trash King, they easily believed them and not willing to listen to his side of things. Truth was, he was annoyed at the Spear and Bow Hero, but the true betrayal was from Renka. He thought more than anything that she would hear him out, especially after the night they had last night. He wasn't ready to think about working with them just yet, he was too annoyed and angry about it all to think straight. Right now, all he wanted was to be left alone and calm down before he does anything else.

"Listen, if you don't mind, I have two questions for you before I leave." said Naofumi.

"Sure, I have no problems with that." Ulthane told the young man.

"Whilst I'm thankful for helping me back at the town, I was wondering, if I wasn't the Shield Hero, would you have helped me?" asked Naofumi.

"No, I wouldn't." admitted Ulthane without a second thought, "As I told you, I'm normally natural, so I wouldn't intervene with other problems. But should anything happen to you, the balance and this world would have been destroyed. So I had to intervene."

Naofumi expected this answer, but he wanted to know for sure. So he asked his final question, "Whilst it isn't true, would you have changed your mind about helping me if I really did rape the princess?"

"Yes I would." once again Ulthane admitted without a second thought, "My people don't care about good or evil, in fact back in my world we would work for either angel or demon, as long as they didn't try to kill us or destroy the balance or the world. So it would be the same for you and everyone else in this world, good or evil, as long as you don't try to do one of those three things, we would be willing to work with you."

"I see." said Naofumi, glad to see that no matter what happens in this world, he would have at least one place where he could get armour and new shields from. Thinking about it, he realized that he needed to see what the cost of getting a new armour would cost.

But before he could ask about this though, someone ran into the forge calling out, "Master, I have some information for you."

_**To Be Continued**_

_**Author's Note:**_ Here ends another chapter of The Rising of Shield Demon, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and if you enjoyed the chapter, please leave some feedback and let me know what you thought of it. Once again, I'm sorry about Erhard, but as I said, I can't see him working with an evil Naofumi, so I had to change things about.

The reason that I used Darksiders, was because I wanted to use some of the demons that were in the game for the story. Not only that, but I wanted to show that other people from other worlds came to this world other than demi-humans if I remember reading somewhere is true.

Now as you review, I have four requests, the first is could you look over the last few chapters and see if you can help me with the other things that I have asked about in the past chapter. The second is how could Naofumi become angrier at the other heroes and such. The third thing is that what other crimes could Naofumi do to become evil, I have plans of him becoming a bandit soon, but I was wondering what crimes he could do as a bandit.

Keep in mind Naofumi is still starting out on his darkening path, so please don't suggest murder right off the bat. Not only that, but he won't be raping anyone at the current moment, so those two crimes are off for now. Also, could you please check over the anime and other stuff and avoid giving me and my beta reader suggestions that he will actually already do but if you can give us crimes and why he would do them that would be lovely.

Lastly, when you are coming up with OCs, I would like the OCs to be male, whilst I like females, I need males too, for fighters, not only for Naofumi but for two of the three heroes. I don't see Motoyasu having men in his party as long as Bitch is in it, even then he wouldn't recruit men into his party.

In the next chapter, I'm planning to show Naofumi's levelling up system. This levelling up system is with skill and attributes points like in many games, but I was wondering, should I do this for all of the characters, or should this be Naofumi's personal strengthing method? Where he uses skill and attributes points to become stronger. Please know your thoughts.


	8. Chapter 7

_**Author's Note:**_ As you read this chapter, I would like it if you give some thoughts about something. Would you like to see guns in the story? I know that I started it off that I am planning to use the idea of guns, but the problem is that I read the Web Novel of Rising of a Shield Hero, guns aren't all that useful unless you are powerful, as guns meant work on your stats and such. So I was wondering if any of you can come up with a workaround for them if you want to see guns.

As you read this chapter, I would also like you to think about what Attributes and Skills I could give to Naofumi. Below is a list of what I have done so far, but I would like to hear your thoughts to what else I can add or what I can change, a way to make the Shield Hero stronger. When you come up with a skill, I would like it if you could give me some information about how it would work. To be honest, seeing how Naofumi's main Attribute and Skill is defence, I'm hoping you can help me with skills surrounding defence as I'm unable to think of anything.

_Strength_

_Carry Weight_

_Attack Points_

_Might_

_Constitution_

_Health Points_

_Health Recovery_

_Stamina_

_Stamina Recovery_

_Action Points_

_Action Recovery_

_Defence_

_Physical Defence_

_Reflect_

_Shield Bash_

_Magical Resistance_

_Agility_

_Accuracy_

_Evading_

_Speed_

Farsight (This is my beta readers idea, so need help to edit it will, if you can think of something, please let us know.) He isn't sure what this is called but eyesight awareness, you know when your eyes tracked something faster than your brain can't keep up with.

I looked up some powers and I believe this is the best one that we think it is: powerlisting . fandom wiki/Accelerated_Perception. The main problem I have is I don't know if this ability belongs to Agility or Wisdom, so I would like to hear your thoughts about this.

_Intelligence_

_Bonus EXP_

_Bonus Skill Points_

_Magic Attack_

_Mana Points_

_Knowledge_

_Wisdom_

_Magic Defence_

_Mana Recovery_

_Awareness_

_Mana Points_

_Soul Points Recovery_

_Soul Points_

_**Chapter Seven… **_

_**Magical Affinity!**_

But before he could ask about this though, someone ran into the forge calling out, "Master, I have some information for you."

Upon hearing the voice, Naofumi turned around and looked at the entranceway, where he saw a lizardman in its twenties quickly ran in. The lizardman had lava coloured scales, it was a good foot taller than he was. Taking a closer look, Naofumi's face turned red as he saw that the lizardman was a female who had huge breasts. She was wearing a green apron with gold markings, which was barely covered her cleavage, she also was wearing a heavy pair of brown gloves. Under the apron, she was wearing a green outfit. The most noticeable thing about her was that she was wearing a collar around her neck, which had a two-inch chain coming off it. Not only that, but she also had some sort of crest on her chest.

"Crusch, what's important that you barge in when I'm talking to someone?" asked Ulthane.

"Forgive me Master," Crusch said with a bow, "but I heard that news that the king has passed a law allowing to boycott the Shield Hero from the stores in town. Should he try and force them to serve him, all they would have to do is call the town guards, and they would deal with him."

"God damn it, that fucking bastard…" Naofumi sneered angrily, angry at what the Bitch and the Trash King did to him. Now they give the damn townspeople a way not to serve him. So he couldn't buy or sell things, things that would make his life easier and help him to survive in this damn world. What he didn't see was that there was a hint of red in the green jewel that was on his shield. "Why the fuck would he do such a thing?"

"My Lord?" Crusch asked in shock at seeing the Shield Hero, "Why are you doing here?"

Naofumi was shocked to hear someone calling him Lord without any content in their voice. He was shocked to see that her tail was wagging back and forth if she was a dog, Naofumi expected that she might jump at him and lick his face, happy to see her master coming home.

"I brought him here," explained Ulthane, "as the townspeople were accusing him of assaulting a human female."

"Why would they spread such lies about the Shield Hero?" hissed Crusch, unable to believe that such lies were out there. There was no way that the Shield Hero that she and the other demi-humans worship would do such a thing, so that what he was being accused of most be lies. But even if he did so, he must have had a just cause to do so, as he wouldn't do such a thing without a good reason, like protecting someone or needing to get something to protect someone. The Shield Hero wouldn't do such a thing for no reason.

"I have no idea why they would lie about me." admitted Naofumi, shocked that someone would take his side again, but part of him was worried that this was some sort of trick to lower his guard before they would do something to him. He knew that until he was sure that they could be trusted, he had to be careful, otherwise he could be burned again. "Do you know more about this boycott?"

"I don't know much My Lord," admitted the Lizardwoman, "but the story is that a few merchants reported that you have threatened them. Saying that if they didn't pay you so much, you would have monsters attack them and anyone who got in the way."

"How the fuck did he learn that so fast?" Naofumi asked darkly, with a hit of anger, "That only happened an hour or so ago, how was he able to pass such a law so fast."

"So it is true My Lord?" asked a shocked Crusch, she didn't think that he would do such a thing.

"Well, not fully no," admitted Naofumi, "yes I did threaten him, but only because he tried to undercut me. There was a customer before me where the merchant was selling Balloon Monster skins for two pieces for one copper coin, but when I came up next, the merchant offered me ten pieces Balloon Monster skins for one copper coin. So I threatened the bastard that if he didn't treat me like the rest of his customers, I would introduce him to some Balloon Monsters, up and personal. I also advised him to warn the other merchants what would happen if they tried to undercut me. And he was the only one I threatened."

"So, you only threatened him when he disrespected you?" asked Crusch with a smile.

"Yeah," nodded Naofumi, "but what I don't get is how fast the king learned it and get the law through."

"He has spies known as Shadows keeping an eye out for him, so he could have one of them keeping an eye on you." Ulthane informs the Shield Hero, "And as for the law I have no idea, I thought the only one who can pass laws in this country was the Queen and she is out of the country for a bit. So I have no idea what happened there."

"What has the bastard and his daughter got against me?" asked Naofumi.

"Sad to say but it's because this country believes in the Three Hero Church, who worships the Sword, Bow and Spear." explained the Maker with a sigh.

"What about the Shield Hero?" asked Naofumi.

"They believe that he is a Shield Demon." explained Ulthane before Crusch could, "In the past he helped the demi-humans out the most and because this country is a human superiority, believing that humans are better than the other races in this world, they hated him for it. So whilst the demi-humans worshipped the symbol of the Shield Hero, this country lough it and believe that he is the devil."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Naofumi hissed in anger, "you're telling me that I'm being mistreated because a past Shield Hero helped the demi-humans in the past and they worship him."

"More or less yes." admitted Ulthane sadly, he didn't like making Naofumi angrier than he already was, but there was nothing he could do about it. The Shield Hero had to know some of the truth so he knew why he was being treated so badly, he hoped that knowing this, the young hero wouldn't let his anger control him. As if he did, it could lead to doom for this world. "Now Crusch, could you please set up a room for…" Ulthane stopped as he realized that he hadn't yet asked for Naofumi's name yet, "I'm sorry, but I forgot that I haven't yet asked for your name."

"I'm Naofumi Iwatani." Naofumi said simply, not trusting himself to speak too much, seeing how he was so angry at the moment."

"Crusch, could you please set up a room for Lord Naofumi." Ulthane asked Crusch.

"Understood Master." Crusch replied, happy at the request, she left to do what she was told with a smile so that she could return as soon as possible, so that she could spend more time with their saint.

With Crusch gone, Naofumi asked, "Are you sure that it's okay for me to stay here?"

"It's fine," Ulthane said with a smile, "me and Erhard are the best blacksmith in Castle Town, so no one would want to upset us. They might disagree with some of the things we do, but they aren't foolish enough to do something stupid to upset and make us leave. Our gear is too important to them. Anyway, this is just for a short while until you decide what to do next."

"Thanks." Naofumi thanked the Maker. At least this was one less thing he had to worry about, all he had to worry about was food and drink, although if he was lucky, as long as he stayed with this Maker character, he wouldn't have to worry about that for now. All he had to do was worry about how to make money, thanks to the Trash King and his damn daughter, it had become near impossible to do so. The mere thought of them made him angrier.

"Listen I know that you're angry, but you need to control yourself, don't let your anger control you." Ulthane warned the Shield Hero.

"Why can't I be angry, I have every right to be." Naofumi told him.

"I didn't say you didn't, all I said you need to be careful." explained Ulthane, "It's just something I remembered about the Legendary Weapon, a story. It is said that the deity that wanted these weapons made placed a curse on each of the Legendary Weapon. It is said that the curses were based on the Seven Deadly Sins, so if you have strong connections towards one or more of the Deadly Sins, you might awaken one or more of the weapons hidden powers. These powers are like a double-edged sword, if you're not careful, they can come with a side-effect that can hinder you instead of helping you."

Naofumi knew what the Seven Deadly Sins were, pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth, but he never knew that they could be used as a weapon, especially sloth. He had no idea how sloth could be used as a weapon, other than putting people to sleep. Other than that, it seemed that sloth could be a weak power to have. But still, Ulthane seemed to be saying that if he wasn't careful, if he gets too angry he could accidentally awaken the curse of wrath. This seemed to piss him off even more.

"Are you saying that I can't even get angry anymore?" Naofumi asked darkly, not liking the idea that he couldn't be angry anymore.

"I said no such thing," Ulthane defended himself, "I said you had to control your anger and not allow it to control you. By letting anger control you, you lose sight of things, don't see things clearly and so make mistakes and put people at risk. You can even lose taste so that you can't taste what you eat or drink. You need to find some sort of outlet so that you don't allow your anger to get control over you."

"And how would I do that?" asked Naofumi, the way he sees it, he couldn't see an outlet that could help him.

"The only two ways I can think of is either fighting or sex." Ulthane said simply.

"Yeah right, like that going to happen." scoffed Naofumi, "I have one point in attack at the moment, so I couldn't hurt a Balloon Monster if I wanted to. And sex, after what that Bitch Princess did to me, do you really think I'm interested in sex right now? I don't think I'll ever be interested in sex again whilst I'm in this world, as I worry that whoever I fuck might fuck me in another way and give me more problems than I already have."

"I understand that," admitted Ulthane with a sigh, "but unless you have a better idea on how to control your anger, I'm all ears." Seeing how Naofumi couldn't think of anything, the Maker went on to say, "Now I think it's best for you to rest for the night, to help you to calm down. In the morning I might have an idea or two that might help you control your anger and a way to earn money." Ulthane already had a plan, but with the way Shield Hero was like right now, it was best to let him calm down before saying anything.

Naofumi hesitantly nodded at this, thankful that he had somewhere to sleep tonight other than outside, Ulthane got a few trust points here for this. But it didn't mean that Naofumi fully trusted him and Crusch, but, it was a good start to earn his trust - it'll be some time before he could fully trust anyone again, if ever. As he stood up though, both of them heard his stomach grumble, "Ah right I haven't been able to buy any food today thanks to the people in this town."

"It's fine," Ulthane told the Shield Hero, "you're my guest, it would be bad form as the host if I have to pay and get your own food and drink. I'll have Crusch make you something and bring it to your room. Maybe some food and a good night's rest, you might see things in a different light."

"I hope you're not going to tell me that I should forgive those fools of the heroes," said Naofumi, hoping that this wasn't the case.

"No, it isn't my place to tell you to forgive them or not," Ulthane informed the young man, "that's down to you to decide. But like or not, at some point in the future you'll need their help with the Waves, so you'll have to figure something out for when the time comes. You don't have to like nor trust each other, but you'll need to find a way to work with each other."

"Are you sure there's no way I can't do this on my own?" asked Naofumi, hoping he wouldn't have to deal with them. With the way they treated him on the first night here and how easy they turned on him, he didn't know if he could work with them or not.

"As I told you, if even one Hero dies, it becomes near impossible to defeat the Waves," the Maker reminded the Shield Hero, "so if three heroes were to die it would more or less the end for this world. And even if there was a slim chance of a hero to defeat the Waves alone, it wouldn't be you with your low attack points. Matter of fact, with each new Wave that appears, the heroes will more and more need to work together to save this world."

Naofumi sighed at this, it would seem that no matter what, it would seem that by the end of all this, he would have to work with the other heroes like it or not. But as he thought about it, that's a problem that he'll have to deal at a later date, for now, he had to find a way to get stronger and fast. Starting with getting new armour. He wasn't that stupid to think he could defend against these monster and demons with the outfit he was wearing right now, only a fool or someone who wasn't thinking straight would do this.

So with a sigh, he said, "I might not like it, but I'll deal with the other heroes at another time, right now I'm not in the mood to deal with those idiots. For now, I need to get stronger."

"Fair enough." Ulthane nodded at this, glad that the Shield Hero was thinking of the bigger picture, he wished that the Shield Hero would work with the other heroes sooner, but it wasn't his place to interfere. All he could do was advise the Shield Hero and hope for the best, what happens from here on out, as long as the Waves were dealt with, is down to the Shield Hero.

"Either way, to get stronger, the first thing I need to do is to get new armour," Naofumi informed the blacksmith, "so I was hoping that in the morning I could buy some armour off you."

"That's not a bad idea," admitted Ulthane, "but a better idea is for me to make you a new armour."

"How so?" asked the Shield Hero.

"So that the armour is fit around your needs and help with your strengths." the Maker informed the Hero, "Whilst I might have gear that might help you, making a new armour from scratch would be better, so we can make sure you have a good start with gear fitted to your skills and talents."

"You would do this for me why?" Naofumi asked suspiciously, wondering what the catch was.

"Because you're the underdog with no one willing to help you," admitted Ulthane, "I'm just giving you the same level field as the other heroes are getting."

"Thanks," thanked Naofumi, "So how do we do this?"

"To start off with I would like to see your Status Card, to see your stats and any abilities that you might have." Ulthane informed Naofumi, who, with unease trust, give the Maker his Status Card.

Name: Naofumi Iwatani. Race: Human Class: Legendary Shield Hero. Guild: None.

Level: 2 EXP: 93/240 Skill Points: 5 Attribute Points: 3

Status: Adventurer/Criminal.

Special Abilities: Four.

Perfect Balance.

Drunkenness Null.

Animal Charisma.

Clairvoyance (Small.)

Magic Affinity: Unknown.

Health Points: 160 Mana Points: 40 Spirit Points: 40

Physical Attack: 1 Magic Attack: 20

Physical Defence: 50 + 5 Magic Defence: 25

Stamina: 100 Carry Weight: 175 lbs

Elemental status

Fire Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Electricity Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Water Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Light Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Wind Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Ice Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Earth Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Darkness Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Thermal Resistance: 30

"Hum…" Ulthane hummed to himself as he looked over what the Shield Hero had, "So that's why you can withstand the heat in here."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Naofumi.

"You have thirty points in Thermal Resistance." explained Ulthane.

"Oh, it's because of my cape, explained Naofumi, "it has a low _**Thermal Resistance **_skin on it."

"I see, in that case, I'll need to work the cape within the design of your new armour." the Maker told the young man, "Now you don't know your Magic Affinity."

"No, I was planning to find a Magic Shop before all this shit blew up," Naofumi informed the blacksmith, "but I can't do that now."

"You're in luck, I have just the thing to help you." Ulthane informed Naofumi, as he went to one of the draws and pulled out a crystal ball out. As he placed it onto the table, "You see, when I make custom made armour, I try to work in the customers Special Abilities and Magic Affinity to help to make them stronger. Now there are times where people don't know their Magic Affinity, either because they have no interest in magic or they haven't got around to finding it out or they don't care about their Magic Affinity."

"Does it matter if we know what our Magic Affinity is though?" the Shield Hero asked in interest.

"No, not really no," admitted the blacksmith, "as you'll be able to learn any type of magic over time. But if you know what your Magic Affinity is though, you can learn that type of magic faster. Say your Magic Affinity is fire, but you want to learn let's say earth magic. Whilst you'll be able to learn earth magic, it would take twice as long, even longer, to learn it where learning fire-type magic would take you no time at all to learn seeing how it's your Magic Affinity."

"I see," Naofumi said thoughtfully, "even if my Magic Affinity is useless, I'll still be still able to learn other types of magic, but it'll take longer."

"It depends on the form of learning yes." said Ulthane, "If you use a Magical Crystal, you can learn the basics right away and master it over time, but you can only learn one maybe two or three powers from the crystal. But if you learn magic from a magical book known as a Grimoire, whilst it might take time, you can learn as many spells as you like from the Grimoire, as they have loads of spells in them. More often than not, these spells are more powerful than the ones from the Magical Crystals. As you would take the time to learn what each spell can do, in doing so, learn how to make them better for yourself."

"How so?" asked Naofumi.

"In most cases when someone learns a spell from a Magical Crystal, that's it, the person doesn't see the need to do more. They just need to learn how to use the spell in their fighting style, that and that alone is how they become stronger from learning spells from Magical Crystals." Ulthane explained to Naofumi, "Now learning from Grimoire, you learn the in and outs of the spell, the diagrams and the incantation to some of the spells. Also with Grimoires, you can alter the spells and even make them stronger. But you should know, to do this though, you need years of experience with magic before you can do such a thing."

"Hum... I see, so basically the Magical Crystal will give me instant spells and the only way for me to get better results and make them stronger, is if I work them within my fighting style." Naofumi said thoughtfully as he tried to understand what he had learnt about magic, "However, I should be able to get much stronger if I read and study a Grimoire." Naofumi said thoughtfully, as he thought about it, he realized that this would be ideal for him. He knew he had to find a way to go on the offensive instead of going on the defensive all the time, and by the looks of it, magic could be what he needed. As even if his Affinity was for something else, all he had to do was to work extra hard to learn the magic he needed to go on the offensive.

"Now these Grimoires not only able to teach me magic but over time as I gain experience in magic, it should teach me how to adjust the spell so I could make it stronger or weaker. Not only that, but unlike the Magic Crystals, these Grimoires can teach me multiple spells not just one or two or three."

At the thought of learning magic got more interesting, the Shield Hero couldn't help but grimace as he realized something, "I just realized something, a problem that I have," Naofumi informed the blacksmith, "I've seen a few signs here in this world, but the problem is that I haven't been able to read any of them. Whilst it seems that this Shield might have a translation feature to allow me to understand the people in this world, at least for this kingdom, but unless it has some sort of feature to allow me to understand the writing of this world, something I thought it would have had right off the bat, it'll be difficult for me to learn. So it looks like I need someone to teach me the language of this world for me to read, looks like searching for someone to teach me to read this world's language came top of my list of things to do. Right after finding a way to fight easier so that I can level up and possibly find some companions that won't use or betray me. Well, I was planning on doing this before the damn First Princess stabbed me in the back anyway, this just pushed me learning to read sooner than later."

"Well, one thing for sure, you definitely got the right ideas if you want to become powerful in this world," admitted the blacksmith, "learning to read and learning some magic right off the bat is a good start. But so is getting some good armour and equipment, along with finding some reliable companions."

"I'll admit that'll be the hardest of the things I've got to do." sighed Naofumi, he knew that he needed companions, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to trust them. "As I'm unsure if I can fully trust anyone fully again."

Ulthane frowned at this, if it wasn't for the First Princess and the King, he would have thought this world could of had a bright future, but now he was unsure. "I would have liked to say that we had a strong and hopeful future ahead of us, but it looks like this stupid Kingdom took out one of the strongest or at least smartest Heroes that I have seen."

"Don't worry I'll keep on fighting, but only so I can get back home and get away from this fucking world." Naofumi informed the Maker.

Ulthane could only shake his head at this, this kingdom seemed to destroy this young man, making it so that he finds it hard to trust anyone ever again - if he can learn to trust again. The kingdom should be happy that as a Maker, he had sworn not to interfere in things any more than he already has done, otherwise he would be more than happy to destroy the kingdom for what they put this one man through.

"Anyways, let's find out what your affinity is…" Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, deciding it was better to get back on track and help Lord Naofumi get stronger, "Please place your hands onto the crystal ball so that we can find out what your affinity is."

So Naofumi did as he was told and placed his hand onto the crystal ball in the front of him, where it glowed for a few seconds. "Now this is something I wasn't expecting," whistled Ulthane as he saw the results, "I was expecting at least one magical affinity, as many people have at least one, it is rare that no one has an affinity, maybe two as there have been a few people who have two magical affinities, every few years. However, I wasn't expecting you to have three… I haven't seen anyone with three in the last hundred years when I started my training as a blacksmith."

"Wow really?" Naofumi asked in shock, unable to believe this, "So what are my magical affinities?"

"The first two was something I was suspecting, seeing how you are the Shield Hero, Healing and Support Magic." Ulthane informed the Shield Hero and before Naofumi could ask what he meant by this, the blacksmith went on to say, "You see as the Shield Hero, you are there to defend the other Heroes and the people, so having Healing and Support Magic would be expected. Not only would it help in the fights better, but whilst you might not be beating the Waves with your low attack, you are definitely going to survive them. With your high defence and your affinity with Healing and Support, you're going to be a monster to take down in a fight and the longer the fight runs on the worse for your enemies it's going to be."

"WHAT!" Naofumi said in disbelief.

"Hahaha! What's so surprising about it kid?" Ulthane asked with a smirk, "Whilst I don't know everything about the Shield itself, I do now that it's a powerful weapon, it's not called a Legendary Weapon for nothing. The fact is, it's not supposed to be weak, it meant to be strong in its own ways…"

Ulthane looked at Naofumi with a more critical look, before getting much closer and poking him, knocking him back with his huge finger. It was like he was seeing something for the first time, as he began to frown before he asked the young man, "You know now that I think of it you don't look like someone who has seen much of fighting, do you even know how to fight with that weapon?"

"Hmm… no," Naofumi hummed thoughtfully, looking down as he scratched the back of his head, "my world is quite peaceful and the places that have war and violence, they have specialized people trained to fight so that people like me didn't have to fight. I took up a fighting skill known as martial arts class, to keep my parents happy and to know self-defence should I get unlucky and get into a fight. I never really thought I would need them, so I never took it seriously as I should have, because of that I'm not even sure I could use it here."

What made things worse was that at least two of his magical affinities didn't help him in fights. Sure Healing Magic would help him to heal himself and others, and some healing magic might help him with the undead if Healing Magic worked the same way as it did in some of the games back home.

Support Magic though, that mainly helped to buff up his and other peoples stats and make sure they could resist certain magic and attacks and help in certain areas. But with his low attack points, the buff up part of the Support Magic wouldn't be of any help to him. And whilst the debuff side of the magic would help others, making it so that the monster's attacks and defence were weaker and vulnerable to certain magic, it meant nothing to him. From what he knew about the Shield, over time as he upgraded his shield, it becomes better than any spells that he could learn for Support Magic.

So unless his third magical affinity was some sort of offensive magic, Naofumi knew he would have to study extra hard to learn some decent offensive magic. He just hoped that it wouldn't take as long as Ulthane made it out to be, it could be because he didn't have the affinity for any offensive magic. Part of him hoped that with his magical attack points was literally twenty times stronger than his regular attack, he would gain some form of affinity in offensive magic. But how his luck has been so far since he got to this world...

"But you can!" said Ulthane without even a second thought, breaking Naofumi from his thoughts.

"What do you mean by this?" asked Naofumi.

"Does your world know anything about physics?" asked the Maker.

"Yeah, they do." The Shield Hero admitted to the Maker.

"I don't know if your world knows this but in my races original world, they have a saying, everything has a cause and effect." Ulthane informed the young man, "For example, let me ask you this, what if I had only one attack point as you have, and I punch you in the stomach as hard as I can, what would you think would happen."

Naofumi had to admit he wasn't all that into physics, nor if he knew if the same rules would apply in this one. "I'm not sure, but I would say you might push me back a bit, but I wouldn't be hurt."

"You would be wrong, the cause would be me punching you and the effect would be you flying across the room." explained Ulthane, "Whilst you wouldn't lose any of your attack points, because of my size, you would have a collapsed stomach and have the wind knocked out of you. If you apply enough force to something, you can do damage to a person, even if you don't have high enough attack power to get past their defences."

This caught the young man's interest, whilst he might not be able to do damage in the normal sense, like taking attack points from people and monsters, he now knew he could knock them out and cause them pain, maybe even breaking a few bones. It wasn't much, but at least it was something, he could now threaten people with pain if he had to or knock someone or thing out when needed.

Either way, Naofumi wanted to get things back on track and wanted to learn what his third magical affinity, "So what's my third affinity?" Naofumi asked with interest, hoping beyond hope that it was some sort of offensive affinity.

"This one is the most interesting one, it's Alchemy." Ulthane informed the Shield Hero.

"You mean like some of the Healers of this world that are known as an Alchemist?" Naofumi asked in worry, thinking that this was some sort of affinity that mixed Healing and Support and created a different affinity.

"Yes and no," the blacksmith told the young man before he went on to clarify, "you see in this world there are two types of Alchemy. The first is The Healers/Researchers, those who study potions and do research on different things, so they have the title of Alchemist."

This reminded Naofumi about the old fashioned, where they were called by many names, one being an Alchemist. They were scientists/doctors of their time, trying to create new medicine and learn new things about the world and such. So hearing this made some sense to Naofumi, seeing how this world was set in around the medieval times and haven't advanced much, not even when they seem to have summoned heroes from another world with advanced technology.

You would have thought that the heroes would pass down the knowledge they knew, to help with making the world that they were summoned to more like their own world. It would make sense if for some reason they wanted to stay in this world, especially if they thought if people back in their world thought they were dead.

So Naofumi had to wonder, what was this second kind of Alchemist? There was part of him hoping upon hope that it was something it was what he was imagining, that this second Alchemist was like the Alchemist he was thinking of. Like from a few anime that he used to watch, Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, along with Senki Zesshou Symphogear, where they used what they had around them to fight or use it in some form, to manipulate and alter the matter, energy and elements to their needs.

So he had to ask, "So what's the second type of Alchemy?"

"The second one is where the Alchemist apart for making potions and such, they are able to manipulate and alter the matter, energy and elements around them, they call it transmutation." explained the blacksmith, "This Alchemist has the ability to use whatever around them as a way to fight."

"YES!" Naofumi called out with joy, he finally had an offence way to fight and do some damage. He was happy that he guessed correctly about the Alchemy Affinity, now he had a way to level up easier. It looked like his future had just got better. Taking a few deep breaths he said, "I'm sorry for that outcry, but I wasn't expecting an offence affinity ability."

"I fully understand Lord Naofumi, I would be the same if I was in your shoes." admitted Ulthane, "But you do realize that before you can use Alchemy, you need to learn how to use Magic and that will take time, more so seeing how you can't read this world's books."

Naofumi's heart shrunk at this as he realized that he had forgotten about this, he got caught up with the fact that he had offence affinity ability, that he forgot he needed to learn how to use it first and that would take time. His heart shrunk even more as he heard the Maker say, "Even then, even if you were able to read this world's books, it would take some time to learn how to use the full use of Alchemy."

"What do you mean?" asked Naofumi, worried about what he was going to hear.

"Sure the true form of Alchemy is one of the most powerful magical skill out there, but it's also one of the hardest to learn." explained Ulthane, "To use the full might of Alchemy, you need to learn the symbols used to create Transmutation Circles, the way to cast advanced Alchemy Magic. These symbols known as runes are difficult and need to be done right, or the effects could be deadly should you try and cast magic with a Transmutation Circle. This is why most people don't try and learn the true form of Alchemy unless they have an affinity for it, as it is too hard to learn otherwise."

"So you're saying that until I learn to read this world's language, I won't be able to cast any Alchemy Magic?" Naofumi asked with a sigh.

"I didn't say that," the blacksmith informed the young man, "you see those with the affinity Alchemy can do a few things that those who can't."

"Oh, and what is this?" Naofumi asked with interest, hoping that he might be able to learn some magic sooner than later.

"What do you know about the magic and magical items that can be used in this world?" asked Ulthane.

"Nothing…" Naofumi told the giant simply.

"Well, there's magical focuses, like a bomb or a crystal, that would allow a person to use elemental attacks or summon certain things." explained the blacksmith, "To do this, the other kind of Alchemists use the cores from monsters that adventurers collect for them to create a magical focus to allow people to use the power of a core."

"Monster Cores?" asked Naofumi, don't get him wrong, he knew what they were, as they were used in a few games that he played back home, but he had defeated loads of Balloon Monsters and not one of them dropped anything that looked like a core. So he went on to inquire, "I have defeated loads of Balloon Monsters, but none of them dropped anything that looked like a core. Is it that only certain monsters drop them or am I missing something."

"I don't know if all monsters have cores, but I do know that most do," admitted Ulthane, "but the reason that you didn't find one on the Balloon Monsters as they come from another monster known as Balloon Legios. A monster that always in the air and rare few ever seen. The Balloon Monsters break off from the Balloon Legios and come floating down to land where they attack adventurers. If these Legios have core or not I don't know as no one ever defeated one before. All I know is that there are different types of Legios to match with the Balloon Monsters that you face. Some are stronger than others."

"I don't know if all monsters have cores, but I do know that most do," admitted Ulthane, "but the reason that you didn't find one on the Balloon Monsters that you've been facing so far, is because they're too young."

"You mean to tell me that Balloon Monsters evolve as they get older?" asked the Shielder. As if they did evolve, he wondered if they were like some monsters in the games that he used to play, where they have stages in their forms.

"Yeah they do," admitted the blacksmith, "as they get to a certain level they evolve into a creature known as Balloon Legios that have their own Balloon Monsters."

"I thought you said they were young, how does getting to a certain level makes them evolve?" asked Naofumi, sure he understood the idea of levels, but if they were young, he thought that they would evolve when they got older not levels.

"Oh, I forgot you wouldn't know this," Ulthane said thoughtfully, "you see monsters and demi-humans age somewhat differently in this world. You see monsters and demi-humans age as they level up, they can become adults after getting to a certain level."

"Are you telling me that demi-humans will die if they level too much?" Naofumi asked a bit worried about this.

"No they don't," Ulthane calmed Naofumi's fears, "monsters and demi-humans level up different, monsters get to their prime around the level forty and those who can evolve will do so around there and if they got another stage to evolve into, they do it at level eighty and after that they just get stronger - no one really knows how old they live for seeing most monsters are defeated before anyone can record their age. As for demi-humans, that one gets a little bit tricky unless they are levelling up, they would age like a normal human being. But should they level up, they'll start to age much quicker, for example if you had a seven-year-old start fight monsters and start to grind up levels, with a few months when they get to level six they'll look like a ten-year-old."

"It takes a few months to level up to level six?" Naofumi asked in shock and worry.

"For a normal person, yes, it can take a person a while. In fact, I have heard stories where it takes a person a year or two before they can get to level forty." explained the blacksmith, "But for those with Legendary Weapons and their party members, it can take them a few weeks to get to level forty, as they gain exp faster than normal people. Because of this, companions are known to go with the heroes as they can level up faster and not worry about the overhunting law. A law that's out there to stop the extinction of a monster."

Naofumi sighed in relief at this, he was worried that even if he got some allies to help him level up, it would take him a long time to level up. "Either way, within a year or so, that child can become an adult from levelling up to a certain level. From then on, the ageing stop, some will start again when they become that age from the moment they were born. But most only age a few years before their time of death to fit their age… some can between their eighties to nineties sometimes a few years older and then there are other demi-human races that can live for hundreds of years."

"So that means that any demi-humans looking in their mid-twenties, could be in fact be between fourteen to around late eighties or much older." stated Naofumi.

"Even younger," admitted Ulthane, "Crusch was eleven when I found her three years ago and within a few months when her level was in the twenties, she looked like she was in her mid-twenties."

Naofumi couldn't believe it, all the young-looking adults could be young children or old people. And so people wouldn't know that they were dating lolis or old people or they did know but it became the norm for them that they no longer care about it, either way, but the thought made him uneasy.

"Either way, about the cores of the Balloon Monsters, is because they aren't Balloon Legios. Some say that once the Balloon Monsters become a Balloon Legios, that's when they get their cores, but some say they are one of the few monsters that don't have cores. No one really knows as no one as defeated a Balloon Legios, or not that I know of. All I know is that there are different types of Legios to match with the Balloon Monsters that you face. Some are stronger than others."

"Anyway, what have these cores got to do with those who can use Alchemy Magic?" asked Naofumi, wondering where Ulthane was getting at.

"Whilst other adventurers need some sort of focus to use the powers from the core, a True Alchemist don't need one." explained the blacksmith, "Instead, they're able to use their Transmute power to use the power from the core? Those with the affinity for Alchemy can learn a few basic spells that allow the person to use the cores that those who use focuses can only dream of. In fact, these spells are what all Alchemists learn first, in fact, these spells are what some who don't have an affinity for Alchemy try to learn, as out of all the magic that an Alchemists can, basic Transmutation Spells are somewhat the easiest to learn. Although they are the easiest, they are still hard and so not many fully master the basic spells and so decide to use focuses for the easy use."

Now, this seemed very interesting, Naofumi thought that if he could find someone who could use these basic spells, he could ask them to teach him to use this magic. As it would be faster to learn this way instead of learning to read the books and then learning the spells.

"So do you know anyone who knows the basics of Transmutation?"

"Well, I know some but sadly I'm not that good at teaching magic," admitted Ulthane, "I'm better at teaching blacksmithing than magic. But I do know someone who can help you, she owes me a favour, so I'll see if she can help. And if she does help, she'll teach you something I can't, how to make cores."

"Make cores? I thought that cores come from defeated monsters." enquired Naofumi.

"And for the most part you would be right," agreed Ulthane, "but like the Balloon Monsters, there are a few monsters that don't have a core. That was until an Alchemist, who lived about two hundred years ago, was able to create a Transmutation Circle that allowed him to use a captured monster that didn't have a core and turn it into a core, he even uses humans and some demons, who also don't have cores. This allowed him to use some skills that he couldn't normally use or learn or was too lazy to learn."

"Humans?" Naofumi asked in shock.

"It might be shocking and awful to hear, but humans and demi-humans who have special skills, like blacksmithing, are sometimes captured and killed or volunteer to be turned into cores when they are reaching the end of their life so that the few who can create cores can make them, so that others can gain blacksmithing skills or improve their skills in blacksmithing." explained the blacksmith.

Naofumi felt a bit sick at hearing this, to hear that people were being hunted for their skills so that they could be made into the core so that people could use the human or demi-humans core to gain their skills. But as he thought about it, Naofumi could see the usefulness in the idea. If an adventurer died and they didn't have some kind of religion believes or their family and friends weren't against the idea, making the adventurers who died during a mission or a non-illegal way would be a good way to remember the person. It would be some kind of legacy.

"Creating a core, whilst one of the basic and most important skills that any Alchemists needs to know, it's also one of the hardest to learn." Ulthane explained to the Shield Hero, "Because of this, it's normally only those who have the affinity for Alchemy or those skilled enough to learn the skill or determined enough, would try and learn it."

"How would a person who has, say a blacksmithing core, be able to use the core?" Naofumi asked in interest, "I can't see someone able to cast a spell and suddenly they'll be able to use the ability for a short while."

"It all depends on the person who creates the core." said Ulthane, "Do you know about slots in armour and weapons?" With this Naofumi only nodded his head, admitting he knew about the slots. In which case Ulthane continued, "In that case, the creator of the core would make it so that the core would be able to be added to a slot and so allow the wearer the skills of a blacksmith, or improve their own skills. Or the creator of these Human Core could make it so that a person could summon a spirit where they could do the work instead of the Summoner. I've heard that those spirits don't look like their past selves, instead, the creators of the cores would design them to be helpful in battle, not just to be summoned to just to make something. The problem with these cores was that they were rare nowadays, as there are fewer people knowing how to create these kinds of cores nowadays. As it has been outlawed to create and sell such cores in Melromarc."

Naofumi found the idea more and more useful as he thought about it, not only were useful in fights, he suspected that they were loyal to their Summoner. It was a shame that the knowledge of how to create them seemed to be lost and not many people knew how to make them, all because it was outlawed in this damn kingdom. He had to wonder why though, as the ability was useful, "Why was it outlawed to create and sell such cores in this kingdom?"

"Because of the Alchemist that came up with it," explained Ulthane, "they were a demi-human. Because this kingdom is a Human Supremacy kingdom, they didn't like the idea of a demi-human being able to create such a thing. So about a hundred years ago, the Queen at the time who had a problem with the demi-humans. for some reason, decided to outlaw of creating and selling such cores. This caused a lot of problems to a growing extent of other problems that the two races had."

Naofumi couldn't believe that because one race thought it was better than the other, that a Queen of this kingdom would outlaw something created by the demi-humans because they hated them. "Hasn't anyone tried to change things?"

"Until recently no, no one wanted to change what they felt was a good thing." explained the Maker, "But the latest Queen wanted the fighting to stop between the two races and has been in talks with the leaders of the Demi-Humans, in fact, I believe that she was speaking with them and the other kingdoms about that and a few other things before the First Wave hit."

_'Maybe there is some hope for this kingdom after.'_ Naofumi thought to himself, seeing how one of the royals seemed to be helping out. Just then, he let out a yawn, after everything that has happened to him that day, it was catching up with him and he needed to rest.

"Either way, enough of the information for the day, I think you have had enough to think about." Ulthane told the Shield Hero upon seeing the yawn, "It looks like I've got a lot of work to do now that I know what your Magical Affinities are, I can start working on your customized armour. But before I do, I was wondering did you have any armour today and if so what was it, its stats and what happened to it?"

So Naofumi explained to the blacksmith about his armour and what happened to it. By the time he finished his story, Ulthane whistled with a frown as he said, "What the hell! Almost anyone should have been able to tell that the armour was stolen if you say the Spear Hero had it.

"What do you mean?" Naofumi asked in curiosity.

"Every blacksmith who is worth their mettle add a little Mark somewhere on the armour to identify where it came from and who made it, we can't have someone faking our work and I know for a fact Erhard keep a record of every armour he sells so he could have easily identified that armour as yours, almost any of the castle guards even the king himself should have been able to get that checked within a few minutes, that would have easily proven that you had gotten your stuff stolen."

"I didn't know that," Naofumi said with a frown, "but still it wouldn't have changed much if I did know. As the damn bitch said she bought it as a gift for Motoyasu, so they would believe her over me every time. They wouldn't look into this to see if it was true or not."

"Sadly, that's more than likely would have happened." the blacksmith admitted with a sigh, before getting back to the subject at hand, "Anyway, would you like the same type of armour, Chain Mail?"

At the mention of the type of armour the Maker wanted to make, Naofumi gave the man a dark piercing look. A look that made Ulthane think that he was staring into the dark abyss and he wasn't ever going to return. "Okay, okay _not _a Chain Mail armour, please stop giving me that look." Ulthane said as he raised his hands to show he meant no harm, thankfully Naofumi dark look disappeared where the blacksmith sighed in relief, happy that the Shield wasn't looking at him like that anymore." In that case, give me a week to make something up for you, I'll also need a few days to try and convince my friend to help you and to see if I can provide you with some kind of assistance, you're going to need it if you're going to be in this country."

"That's fine," Naofumi told him honestly, "it's not like I'll be facing anything too dangerous, so I can wait for the armour to be made."

"That's good." Ulthane said with a sigh, feeling a bit sorry for the young man in front of him. He had to find a way to help him as if Naofumi couldn't get stronger soon, he could end up dead and the world would be in trouble, something the Maker couldn't allow to happen.

Before he could say anything else, Crusch entered the forge as she said, "Master, the room for Lord Naofumi is ready."

"Good Crusch, take Lord Naofumi to his room and then bring him and me some food." Ulthane informed the Lizardwoman, "Afterwards, unless I have anything for you to do, please help Lord Naofumi with anything he needs."

"Of course Master, I would be happy to help Lord Naofumi." Crusch said with a bow.

"Before you leave, can I ask you something personal?" Ulthane asked politely.

"You can ask, but I might not answer though." Naofumi told the giant.

"The Skill Points and Attribute Points on your Status Card, what are they about?" Ulthane asked with interest.

"To be honest I don't know yet." admitted Naofumi, "I got a rough idea and I was going to check after I got something to eat, well, shit happened and I wasn't able to. But don't you know? Isn't it part of this worlds Status Magic?"

"No, it isn't," Ulthane informed the young man, "in fact, I suspect that they might be part of your Strengthening Method."

"Strengthening Method?" asked Naofumi, hoping it was the way it sounded, a way to strengthen himself up, that by using the Skill Points and Attribute Points that he gained, he could become stronger by the same way that he could with his characters back home.

"Not many know this, but each Legendary and Vassal Weapon has its own Strengthening Method to make not only the weapon stronger, but the user too, depending on the user." the blacksmith explained to the Shield Hero, "But the thing is, from what I've been told, the Strengthening Method is different from person to person, so no two Strengthening Methods would be the same. It is believed that the Strengthening Method is dependent on the Hero, on how they play their games back in their world."

Naofumi couldn't believe it, the games that he liked and was planning to use in his manga was going to be useful in this world. He just hoped that whatever his skills and attributes were in this world were helpful, he hoped that one of them would help with his attack. In fact, if he played it right and the other heroes didn't have something like this as a Strengthening Method, he could become stronger than them. This was something he had to look into.

"I see, I'll have to check it out," Naofumi told the blacksmith, "for now I think I'll go to my room and rest up."

"Fair enough, I'll see you later." Ulthane told the Shield Hero, as he single Crusch to lead Naofumi to his room.

As Crusch was leading Naofumi out of the forge, he stopped at the doors and turned to the Maker and asked, "There's one last thing, I was wondering, how could the bastard Erhard get past my defences? I thought that thanks to this damn shield, my defences would be unbreakable by most people in this town."

"And you would be right," admitted Ulthane, "but you need to know two things, first he is level forty-five with high attack power, something apart for a few advance adventurers in town are. The second thing is that like you, Erhard as a special ability, this ability allow him to bypass the defences of those who are lower level than him."

"So you're telling me that until I get over the level forty-five, he would be able to bypass my defences without a second thought?" Naofumi asked worriedly.

"I'm afraid so," Ulthane informed Naofumi with a sigh, "no matter how high your defence is, he'll be able to bypass it unless you are a higher level than his. But you should be warned though, with the Waves about, he like many other adventurers will be levelling up so that they can defend themselves should they get caught in a Wave."

"Damn, not good," Naofumi frowned, not happy with the news, he was a threat and he wasn't sure how to deal with him, "I'll have to be careful around him from now on. As I really don't want to get caught by another of his punches."

"Fair enough." said Ulthane, as Naofumi left the forge as he thought about how to deal with the new information that he gained that day.

_**To Be Continued**_

_**Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END:**_ Here ends another chapter of The Rising of Shield Demon, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and if you enjoyed the chapter, please leave some feedback and let me know what you thought of it. I know that I said this chapter would be about Naofumi levelling up, but this chapter took on a life of its own and this came about, I hope you liked it though.

The chapter would have been out sooner, but I had a problem with my laptop which forced me to take it into the shops to get sorted. Because of this, writing been slower and I had to use my phone to write some of the chapter, which is hard enough for me.

As for the gun question at the start of the chapter, my beta reader suggested that I should use magic instead of normal gunpowder as they used in the Web Novel, but I still would like your thoughts about this and ideas on how to make firearms better. Because it wasn't just the bullets made the gun weak, but you needed to be high level for the stats to use them - that's how I understood it anyway.

I used the name Crusch from Overlord, as that's the only female name I could find for a female lizardman. So I would like it if you could help me with female lizardmen names.

I got a review saying that I need a Beta Reader, but I do have someone who looks over my work before I post it. Not only does he help with my spelling and grammar, but he also helps with ideas and such. So if you think you can do better in the spelling and grammar department, please let me know and I'll send you a chapter to look at to see what you can do with it. Please remember, I am dyslexic and have learning problems, so I write as I feel is right and hope that those who agree to help me fix any problems there are with the chapters.

Now there's been a few people who asked that I give Naofumi the Lust Curse along with the Wrath Curse, but I have a slight problem with this. In the WN version of the story that I have been reading, the side effects of the Curse is that Motoyasu sees most of the woman as Pigs unless they are Filolial Queens, and this is something I don't want. So if you want Naofumi to have the Lust Curse, I want three things from you:

First, how would he get the Curse? As I'm not planning to make him a womaniser nor a sex-crazed person, so I wouldn't have the faintest idea of how he would get such a shield.

Second, I want ideas for the looks and powers for this new Curse Shield, as the Wrath Shield had a few stages to it and had new powers and looks as the Wrath Shield got upgraded.

And lastly, what should the side effects be for him, as I really don't want Naofumi to see women as pigs as I want him to fuck a few of them. Not only that, I don't him to unable to feel the effects of lust, the urge to have sex or unable to get off. That would be no fun at all to write.


	9. Chapter 8

_**Warning:**_ Information dump, I know that many don't like these kinds of chapters, but this one is important. As this chapter is going to explain about Naofumi's personal Strengthening Method, skill and attribute points. IMPORTANT NOTE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER, PLEASE READ WHEN YOU GET TO IT.

_**Author's Note:**_ Now before I start this chapter I want to apologise for how long it's taking for me to get to Raphtalia, while there has been only a handful of complaints about it, I know some of you want to see her sooner than this. The truth is, I'm one of them, I too wanted her in the story by now. But the thing is, each of these chapters has been taking a life of their own. Ideas, plot and such came alive as I write the chapters, making it so that I change the direction of the chapter. Like the last chapter, the plan was to level Naofumi up and in this chapter set things up where he'll either get Raphtalia at the end of the chapter or the start of the next chapter.

Instead, though, I talked about Naofumi's Affinities and some stuff on alchemy and delay Naofumi levelling up until this chapter. I would like to say that it won't happen again, but I can't, as whilst I might have a rough idea of what I want to happen in the next update, I'm the type of person who doesn't really know what will happen in a chapter until I write it. So when I started to write the last chapter, things can change and stuff I want to happen was pushed back to this chapter. I just hope you can understand and bear with me.

Either way, onto the next chapter:

_**Chapter Eight… **_

_**Levelling Up! **_

Crusch led Naofumi up a set of stone stairs where he came to a shop with armour and weapons, Naofumi noticed that the doors and the rooms were huge, most likely to allow Ulthane to move about with ease. Then Crusch led Naofumi up two more sets of stairs, this time made of wood, where Naofumi was in a huge room. It had three bookshelves, a few chests of drawers, a few wardrobes and a king-size poster bed with drips. There was also a dining table and chairs. All of the furniture was medieval in style. Naofumi had to admit the room was better than he was expecting he would be staying in for the night.

As he set down at the dining table, Crusch bowed as she said, "I'll be back in a short while My Lord, if there's anything you want, please just ask. If it's within my power to do so, I'll do what I can to get it for you."

"Thanks," thanked Naofumi, "but all I want right now is something to eat and drink."

"Of course Lord Naofumi," replied Crusch, "is there anything you would like to eat?"

"Anything will do." Naofumi told her simply, the matter of fact was, he didn't know what kind of food there was in this world. Other than the feast back in the castle and the food at the tavern, he wasn't sure of the food or the names for them.

"I'll be back soon as I'm done, My Lord." Crusch said with a bow as she left the room.

Once she was gone, Naofumi opened his Status Bar and checked his stats once again. He wasn't suspecting much change from the last time he checked, but he wanted to see if his Magic Affinity was added to it yet. To be honest, he found it strange that certain details were added automatically to his stats without his knowledge. Like his Status, before it was just Adventurer, but since this morning after he got framed, his Status had Criminal added. He had to wonder how was that possible, was it part of the magic of this world or was there a way for the Kings and Queens to add such details somehow?

Either way, as he looked at his stats, sure enough, he saw his Magic Affinity was indeed added to his stats, which kind of threw out that last thought about the King and Queen being able to add details to his status menu and figured it was a combined knowledge of the world and his own knowledge. Either that, or it was a mixture of both. Meaning the world already knew it but unless he acknowledges it it wouldn't show up on his status screen, that was an annoying thought. Because that means there's hidden stats and abilities that he doesn't know about himself that he could help him out if he only knew the knowledge of what it was.

Name: Naofumi Iwatani. Race: Human Class: Legendary Shield Hero. Guild: None.

Level: 2 EXP: 93/240 Skill Points: 5 Attribute Points: 3

Status: Adventurer/Criminal.

Special Abilities: Four.

Perfect Balance.

Drunkenness Null.

Animal Charisma.

Clairvoyance (Small.)

Magic Affinity:

Healing.

Support.

Alchemy.

Health Points: 160 Mana Points: 40 Spirit Points: 40

Physical Attack: 1 Magic Attack: 20

Physical Defence: 50 + 5 Magic Defence: 25

Stamina: 100 Carry Weight: 175 lbs

Elemental status

Fire Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Electricity Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Water Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Light Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Wind Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Ice Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Earth Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Darkness Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Thermal Resistance: 30

Then as he remembered that he needed to go to his profile page, for the first time that day, he saw a flashing head at the bottom of the Status Bar. He was about to push the head to open it like he had been doing for a while that day, when he remembered how he opened the Status Bar: focusing on it. He felt foolish, other than opening the Status Bar, he had been using it as he was playing a real game, pushing the buttons to open the page. He didn't think that he could focus on the symbol to open it. Feeling foolish for not realizing this sooner, he focused on the image head where the image changed.

Now, he saw a picture of himself where like in the games he played before, it showed what he was wearing and had boxes to show what items he was wearing. In fact, where his hands were, there were five extra boxes for each hand, with a question mark above it, just like the other boxes.

_**Rings:**_

_As long as not wearing gloves, the user can wear up to five rings per finger!_

Next his picture was a bar for his health, SP, mana and EXP, it also had his name, race, class, level, guild, status and finally skill points and attribute points. Underneath all that, there were three bars. The first one had the word Character in it, the second one had the word Inventory and the last one had Skills and Magic.

When he focused on the Character Bar, it had two categories, Attribute and Stats. Under Attribute, it had six attributes, Strength, Constitution, Defence, Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom. He was half expecting to see Charisma in the list too, but as he thought about it, it would be too easy for him god forbid he had that. Having problems dealing with someone or making a deal, just add a few points into Charisma, bang the problem would be solved. No, this damn world didn't want to make things easy for him, so it wouldn't give him Charisma.

Now each of the Attributes had a question mark and the number one next to them, and as he looked at each of them, it said more or less said the same thing. The only difference was that the Attribute name changed, for example, one help menu would say Strength whilst another would say Defence and so on.

_**Strength:**_

_HELP! _

To see your strength skills, open strength. Skills can't go above your strength points, so if your strength is at level 5, your skills can't go above level 5.

So it would seem that each of these Attributes had its own skill set to go with it. He had to wonder, did the number next to the name of the Attribute was the level of the Attribute?

_**Attributes:**_

_HELP!_

Attributes can be levelled up by either using Attributes Points, doing certain jobs or unlocking and mastering new shields. As you level the Attributes, the skills within each Attribute and gain new Shields, you may unlock new abilities.

Naofumi already knew that he would need to use Attributes Points to level up his Attributes, but it was nice to know that by doing certain jobs or unlocking and mastering new shields, he could raise his Attributes Points that way. This was something he would need to look into, if he was able to level his Attributes up by doing certain things, he would have to find out what they were so he could level them up as fast as possible. Wanting to see what his Strength Attribute, he opened it.

_Carry Weight(?): 0._

_Attack Points(?): 0. _

_Might(?): 0._

"Yes!" whooped Naofumi, seeing that he had a way to level up his attack. But that happiness didn't last for long though, as he read the help, his heart broke.

_**Attack Points:**_

_HELP!_

For each skill point that you place into Attack Points, you get one point into it. You can only have 10% of your physical defence as attack points. So for 30 points of defence, you can only have up to 3 attack points. The only way to gain more is from unlocking new shields.

Naofumi wanted to cry at this, for the first time in this damn world, he thought he had finally found some luck, that he found a way to fight easier. But no, that dream popped like a Balloon Monster. Unless he found new shields that would give him more attack points, he couldn't raise his attack points more than 10% his physical defence. Not for the first time he was wondering why this world seemed to hate so much. At the moment, it seemed that the world was out to get him, to keep him weak. He just hoped that whoever Ulthane knew would be willing to help him learn alchemy, otherwise he wasn't sure if he would survive this world. All he could do was hope for the best.

Either way, back to the other skills, whilst his base carry weight was 175 lbs, he could raise it to 25 lbs by using Skill Points.

Naofumi thought to himself how useful this skill was and how useless it was at the same time. But as he thought about it, he wouldn't become over encumbered if he was in a dungeon because he found lots of great importance and didn't want to leave them behind. If that happens, he could place a few points to allow him to take them with him.

The next skill in the Strength category Naofumi wasn't too sure about, it was Might. By adding Skill Points into it and doing certain things, he would be able to left, pull, push even punch things such as Rocks, Boulders and the like. Apart from the odd times where things might get in his way, he couldn't see how this skill could be useful in his everyday life. He would have to test it out, but he couldn't see himself adding too many Points into it.

The next Attribute he looked at was Constitution, in this one it had the following:

_Health Points(?): 0. _

_Health Recovery(?): 0. _

_Stamina(?): 0. _

_Stamina Recovery(?): 0. _

From the help menu, basically, it stated that depending on how many Skill Points that he put into them, would stat how much Health and Stamina he would have have and how fast they would recover.

The next Attribute he looked at was Defence, this on Naofumi was suspecting to have quite a few skills connected to this Attribute seeing how it was his main power thanks to the fact he was the Shield Hero. But to his shock, there were only four skills:

_Physical Defence(?): 0._

_Reflect(?): 0._

_Shield Bash(?): 0._

_Magical Defence(?): 0._

Although, as he looked at these skills, he wasn't able to think of any more skills that could be added to the category. As he thought about it, the most pointless skill there was Physical Defence. As he mastered new shields, he would gain the defence from any of the shields that had bonus defence. He didn't see himself too many, if any points into this skill. Not unless he wanted to become an unstoppable tank character, which he wasn't sure if that's what he wanted. If he was able to attack instead of just defending himself, but without being able to attack or having companions, he didn't see the point of becoming a tank. As he couldn't level up like that.

Now the rest of the skills seemed okay, with Reflect, the more points that he put into it, the better chance that he would have to reflect the attacks. That would mean that half of the attack would be sent back to the attacker. The good news was that if he took into account his attack points, Reflect would have a bonus. So if he had ten attack points and the attacker's attack was a hundred, instead of sending only half of the attack back, he would send sixty points of it back. At least this gave him a reason to add points into the Attack Points.

Next was Shield Bash, this skill would allow him to stun and knock his enemy back, unlike Reflect where it required for his opponent to attack him first. This was actually an offensive ability of sorts, to allow him to have the ability of Stun and/or Knockback his targets. When he was going to dismiss this idea too, a thought occurred to him. Once he was able to create better traps, he could use Shield Bash to knock his enemies that afforded the traps back into them if they were in front of them. And if that wasn't possible stun them and allow his companions to take advantage of them, should he get any, otherwise it would give him some time to come up with a better solution. So he might actually think about putting some points into this skill, as it might be able to help him in the upcoming battles.

Lastly in the Defence category was Magical Defence, this skill allowed him to defend against magical attacks other than elemental attacks.

The next Attribute he looked at was Agility, when he opened the category up, he saw it only had five skills in it:

_Accuracy(?): 0._

_Evading(?): 0._

_Speed(?): 0._

_Leap(?): 0._

_Dexterity(?): 0._

It would seem that these skills were meant to help him to evade attacks, aim certain attacks better and allow him to move, run and attack faster. At first the only skill that didn't make too much sense for someone who was specialized in shields, as they were meant to be able to block the attacks. But as he thought about it, he realized that whilst most attacks can be blocked, but then he realized that not all attacks can be blocked.

He remembered in a few games back in his world where some attacks could be bypass shields and defences, it was rare but when you faced such characters, it was better to have high HP or high evade skills. So it might not be a bad idea to place a few points in this skill just incase he faced such attacks.

The next Attribute he looked at was Intelligence, when he opened the category up, which had five skills to it:

_Bonus EXP(?): 0._

_Bonus Skill Points(?): 0._

_Bonus Attribute Points(?): 0._

_Magic Attack(?): 0._

_Bullet Time__(?): 0._

Now Bonus EXP, Skill Points, Attribute Points and Magic Attack was skills that he expected to see, as he had seen them in a few games back in his world. But the skill called Bullet Time was something he wasn't expecting.

This Bullet Time skill, from what he could understand from the help menu, as he levels the skill up, his mind and senses process information at such speeds that time appears to have slowed down, allowing them to perceive what would normally be moving too fast to see and respond accordingly. Some might call this a cheat, but he didn't care, he would take whatever he could get from this unforgiving world. All he knew the other heroes had better Strengthening Methods, so they can't really complain. And if not, fuck them, with the way they treated him, he was happy to have a one up on them, maybe he can find another Strengthening Method or Methods that can make him stronger then those fools.

The last Attribute that he opened was Wisdom, it had six skills to it:

_Magical Resistance: 0._

_Mana Points(?): 0._

_Mana Recovery(?): 0._

_Awareness(?): 0._

_Spirit Points(?): 0._

_Spirit Recovery(?): 0._

Like with Constitution, Wisdom basically give him the chance to gain more points in certain skills and recover them faster. The only skills that he didn't get recovery or more points to be able to use abilities and magic for longer was abilities Magic Resistance and Awareness.

Magical Resistance allowed him the chance to resist against magical attacks like, sleep, confusion, fear and attacks like that. So higher the level of this skill, the less likely he would fall for magical traps and attacks that would him and his party into danger.

Lastly, the last skill in the Wisdom category and the very last skill in Attributes was Awareness. It seemed that this skill gave him the ability to let him know about his surroundings, an early warning system of sorts. At low levels, the skill could only tell him if people were around him and only in a small radius, but at higher levels, the radius would become bigger and it would let him know if people were armed and later on, if they were hostile towards him.

Naofumi could only sigh after seeing this, he had hoped that the skills under Attributes, they would help him become stronger, give him abilities to help fight. But other than the ability to raise his Magical Attacks, none of the skills would help him to defeat monsters. Oh, don't get him wrong, he knew that as a Shield Hero, the skills were what he would have expected, they helped with defence and getting out of fights, but not for fighting. How was he meant to raise in levels if he wasn't able to fight back?

Sure he would be able to learn magic, but the problem there is that he couldn't read this world's language. Sure Ulthane was looking into someone to learn magic, but that wasn't a sure thing. Not only that, but to get stronger, he would have to travel the lands and whoever was meant to teach him might not be able to follow him, which meant that he had to rely on books to learn magic, something he couldn't read. This pissed him off. He wished that one of these skills were something that would allow him to learn to read, but then again, that would make things all to easy for him. And if that's one thing Naofumi was quickly learning, this damn world didn't want to make things easy for him. By this rate, unless he got lucky, he would not survive his first Wave.

_'No, I can't keep thinking like that,'_ Naofumi thought to himself, _'I can't allow myself to think that I'll die, not without trying to fight against the odds. Sure the odds are stuck against me, but I'll fight these odds and do what I must to survive in this world.'_

So with that thought in mind he relooked over his Attributes and skills underneath them and thought about where to place. He knew that he just couldn't place them wherever he wanted, as he couldn't reset them at a later date like some of the games he played before would allow him to. At least he didn't think he could reset them. But as he thought about it, he realized that for the first few levels, he should place his points into Bonus Skill Points and Bonus Attribute Points.

The extra Attribute Points was so that he could get more skills from its category, seeing levelling up the skills under each category was limited to what level his Attributes were. So without getting some decent levels for his Attributes, he wouldn't be able to get stronger any time soon. Although he wouldn't raise the skill to high, as he didn't know if it would be like the games back home where after raising a few levels you would then gain more Attribute Points that way. Not only that, but he could gain extra Attribute Points by getting new shields if he was lucky, and if he wasn't, he would do certain training to try and get them that way.

As for extra Skill Points, if they worked like the games back in his world, each skill would need certain amount of Skill Points, so unless mentioned otherwise, and each new level would need more Skill Points than the previous level. So getting Bonus Skill Points was key at the moment. Especially if to level up his shields it would mean that he had to use Skill Points too, so the more Points he could get the better.

The first thing that Naofumi did was place all three Attribute Points into Intelligence, making it level four. His idea was for the next few levels, he would place his points into Intelligence and the Bonus Skill and Attribute Points. This is so that he would have enough points to level up his shields and other abilities with ease for a while.

After raising his Intelligence, he placed his first Skill Point into Bonus Skill Points, which gave two extra Skill Points for the next time he levelled up. Which wasn't too bad, he wished it was a bit more, but for a level one it wasn't anything to scoff at, it could have been easily one point. As he looked to see how much it was going to cost him to level up, as expected, it was a bit high, but not as much as he feared. To raise the skill again, he needed three points, he feared it could have been much higher. Now raising Bonus Skill Points to level two, he gained another three points. So when he levelled up next, he would gain ten Skill Points instead of five, which wasn't too bad.

It wasn't as much as he had hoped for, but from a few games that he played back in his world, it was much better than those games. The down side to this though was that to level the skill up again he would need six Skill Points, which meant that he could only level it up once when he levelled up. He just hoped that when he did, it was a higher amount of Skill Points awarded. But with how his luck was in this world so far, he wasn't going to put much hope in it.

Now with his last Skill Point, he put it into Bonus Attribute Points as planned. In doing so, he found that he gained one extra point to use when he levelled up next. Once again he hoped that he would gain more, but as he thought about it, seeing how it was possible to gain more Attribute Points by doing certain things and gaining new shields, he should have expected this. As if he could have more, it would make him too powerful and that was something this world didn't want him to be or at the very least, make it very hard for him to do so. But four Attribute Points when he levelled up next was better than three.

Now that he had dealt with his Skill and Attribute Points, Naofumi setback for a moment and thought about what to do next. If he was going to survive this damn world, he has to think about how he can get stronger. Sure learning Alchemy and gaining new shields will help, but that's only one step in getting stronger, he would need money to help him get stronger.

As he needed the money to buy equipment and supplies, but because of the damn king and his bitch of a daughter, the store owners in this kingdom wouldn't serve him. Sure he was partly to blame for acting foolish, acting like some thug, but he was at a breaking point and had enough of people walking over him. But because of his actions, it allowed the king to interfere in his life even more. Without money it would be hard for him, which means he could only hope someone would take pity on him and buy and sell things with him, or find something like a black market where they didn't care who he was.

Then he remembered something, the skills that the bitch Renka mentioned, weapon drop and item creation system. The problem was that there was a part of him that had a hard time trusting and believing in Renka, He still couldn't believe that she would take the other bitch's side over his after spending the night together, where he was nothing but nice to her. Part of him knew that from the world she came from, a story like that and the so called prove, she would believe it. But he still hoped that she knew that he couldn't get drunk.

Either way though, her suggestions would help him, allowing him to create things and get things from the monsters and in the hopes of selling them if they were any good. If the items that he got from the monsters were rare and and better than normal, the store owners would forget what he did and buy his stuff and sell him things.

Either way, he wasn't sure how Renka's idea would work, with Motoyasu, all he had to do was hold a shield and it would be copied. With Renka's idea though, he wasn't able to see a symbol that might make it work, nor was he able to find anything in the help menu to explain how the skill was able to work.

"Maybe this is a skill that wasn't allowed in this world," Naofumi said with a sigh after five minutes of trying to figure out the skill, "I believe that Renka said she wasn't sure if the skill would work or not."

Naofumi only sighed, he wished that he was able to use Renka's idea, as it would have helped him a lot out in the world. Able to create armour and other things giving him an edge, along with getting extra potions and other items so he wouldn't have to spend the little money that he had Just then Crusch, the humanoid lizardwoman, entered the room with a tray of food and drink. As she placed the tray onto the table, Naofumi thanked her, "Thanks for this Crusch."

"No problem My Lord," Crusch said with a bow, "is there anything else that you need?"

As Naofumi thought about it, but right now all he wanted was to have something to eat and then get some sleep. But more than anything, he wanted to forget this day, but he knew that it wouldn't be possible so decided that sleep would have to do.

"No thanks, there's nothing else that I need that I can think of." Naofumi informed Crusch.

"Okay My Lord, but if you need anything, my room is just down the hall, so just call out and I'll come straight away." the lizardwoman informed the Shield Hero.

"Thank you Crusch and goodnight?" Naofumi thanked the young woman.

"Goodnight My Lord." Crusch bowed as she bid Naofumi goodnight and left the room.

Once Crusch left the room, Naofumi began to eat the food that the young demi-human give him, the problem was as he took a few bites of the food, he realized that he couldn't taste a thing, he couldn't taste his drink. It was as if he was eating/drinking. At first he thought that Crusch might have pulled a prank on for some reason, but he realized at once that was ridiculous. She was treating him like the second coming or something, if Ulthane's story about the last Shield Hero was true, that might be very true. So that meant that the problem laid with him somehow.

That's when he remembered Ulthane's words, about how if he didn't control his anger, he might lose his sense of taste. At first Naofumi wasn't sure if this was true or not, but seeing how he had eaten for the first time that day, he realized that the blacksmith might be right. But there was a part of him was hoping he couldn't taste anything because he was tried and not because he was so angry.

So after having his dinner, Naofumi decided that it was time to go to bed. Sure it was early, but with the day that he had, he needed some rest and even if he couldn't sleep right away, he would lay there and try and think of what to do next. He can't stay weak as he was now, he needed to find a way to get stronger other than using traps.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Kingdom of Melromarc, Castle Town, Castle:_

Myne Sophia, or as she really was known as, Malty S Melromarc, the Princess of Melromarc, was in her room in the castle having a fit. Kicking a male dog demi-human servant. She had hoped that by framing the Shield Hero of rape, her father would have had him killed or at the very least imprisoned. In fact, because of her knowledge that like her, he thought the Shield Hero was some kind of demon and so would have dealt with in some from for raping his own daughter, but he didn't.

When she asked about this later on, her father informed her that he couldn't unless he wanted to go to war with the other kingdoms. It was bad enough that he summoned them all in one place, but if he killed or imprisoned the Shield Hero, they would for sure go to war with them. And with the Wave of Catastrophe here, they needed all the kingdoms on one side until it was over. She tried to pull the card that the Shield Hero scarred her, but that didn't work either, in fact, her father's words shocked her.

"Oh please daughter, do you really think I would be fooled by this foolish actions of yours? Do you really think I would be fooled more your lies?"

Malty was shocked, it would seem that her father knew her actions better than she expected. That day her father told her that he knew about her actions, how she used the boys at her school in Faubley, how whilst many thought her a virgin, he knew otherwise. He knew much of her actions, but as her father and he loved her so much that he allowed her to do as she pleased. However, going to war for her actions wasn't something he was willing to allow, at least over one person at least. But it was thanks to her that he was able to make sure that the Shield Hero stayed weak as long as possible. He was also thankful that the Shield Hero reacted the way he did, he was able to prevent the Shield Hero getting stronger even more. This way, keeping him low level, it would mean that during the next Wave of Catastrophe, he should get himself killed without getting their hands dirty, which means no war and no one to blame other than the Shield Hero.

Malty was pissed, she had gotten beaten up and scarred for no reason, she had hoped that the Shield Hero would have been killed for the so called crime that he meant to have done to her, but no. Her father didn't want to start a war against the other kingdoms over the Shield Hero. Because of this, she felt that her father had become weak, unwilling to do what was needed to get rid of the Shield Demon before he could gain the power to take over their kingdom. If it were her, she would have had the bastard killed.

Because of this, she was kicking her personal servant that she had, someone who would take care of her needs. She hated this thing, but her mother wanted someone to look after her and her younger sister for when her mother and father was away, so she and her sister had a dog demi-human servant, one each, to take care and protect them. As they had enhanced senses and abilities to help to protect them. Whilst Malty didn't mind having a personal servant, what she did mind was that the servant was a damn demi-human.

Like her father, she hated demi-humans, she couldn't trust them, they believed that humans were the higher beings and demi-humans and demons were there to be used as the humans want them. Many humans keep demi-humans and demons as slaves, to be used as menaul and sexuals tools.

So unknown to her mother, her father had her servant enslaved with a high class Slave Seal, one that unless the master wants to be shown, will be invisible. This way she could treat the damn thing as she wanted and it wouldn't be able to tell anyone about it. Because of this, she often mistreat and use the demi-human for her sick needs, beating them when she was angry or force them to fuck her if she had no one else to fuck. What no one knew about her was that she had huge sexual needs and she would get them wherever she could, the good thing about her having a slave was that unless she permit it, the slave couldn't impregnate her, so she couldn't have the damn thing's child. So other than beating them, she would rape them too for her sick needs.

Either way, she wasn't happy with how things were dealt with the Shield Demon, she wanted something more done. Something that would make it worth her face being scarred, if her father wasn't going to do something, she would talk with The Church of the Three Heroes. She knew that they would find a way to deal with the Shielder. She would go and see them tomorrow with the Spear Hero as they visit the Dragon Hourglass so that the Spear Hero and her can find out how long they had before the next Wave would appear.

Thinking about the Spear Hero, she was glad to have him as a companion. He seemed to be attracted to cute to sexy women, who'll do anything for them. He reminded her of the men that she dealt with in the past, easy to control as long as the female keep the men interested in them, listen to their stories, flirt with them, tell them that they were doing a good job and such, and lastly, make sure that they do almost anything for you, allow the men to fuck you. This'll get the men to do 98% of the things that you want them to do. So she'll have an easy time of controlling the fool, and if she was lucky she was worth it, she could have him marry her.

If she could make that happen, that would show those back at Faubley Kingdom that they won't all that. As in the past, should the Three Heroes decided to stay in this world, it would be the Faubley Kingdom who keeps them and marry their norble off to them. That's how they got their power in the last six hundred years or so, but this time though, she was planning to get one of the Heroes for the Melromarc Kingdom, so that they for once have the power of the Cardinal Heroes.

If Motoyasu didn't work out as Malty hoped it would, she would always try and get Itsuki to marry her. She would do whatever she could to get one of the Cardinal Heroes, so up the other kingdoms and show that hers is just as powerful as the rest of them. It was a shame that Renka was a female or she would try getting her to marry her.

Thinking about Renka, she remembered the small talk that the two had just after the Shield Demon left the castle when Renka wanted to make sure that she was right. It would seem that the damn Shield Demon had the ability to hold his drink, so that he couldn't get drunk. She realized that this was the reason that the Demon didn't drink with her, he wasn't able to get drunk. Oh she really hated Ability Holders at times, as they would have abilities that would make things so much harder to plan to frame them or use them somehow.

Either way though, she was able to come up with a light lie, where she told the Sword Heroin that there was a skill to be able to fake his Status Card. So it was possible that he was able to find someone to fake the card so that he could show people that he wasn't as useless as he really was. So the Drunkenness Null and his other abilities were fake, to try and make him look better than he really was. Thankfully Renka fail for it too, the ability was out there, but it was rare and only certain people could use the ability. So the Shield Demon couldn't have gotten it as soon as she made it out that he did.

Malty was glad Renka fail for her lie, as that meant one less person who believed in the damn Shield Demon. She just hope that other than this Maker she heard that the Shield Demon found, no one else would believe him and help him. But then again these damn Makers are one race that are hard to gain leverage over. They don't care if the person is good or evil, as long as the person didn't insult their race in some from, or try to destroy this balance that they talk about, they'll help anyone they see fit.

It didn't help that the Maker in this town was one of the few people who could work with Monster Core, whilst the other blacksmith works with Magical Stones, both to make their weapons and armour stronger. So she wouldn't be able to force the Maker to stop helping the Shield Demon, as if she did, her kingdom would be weakened and her father would surely be angry at her. So she would have to find another way to keep the Shield Demon from becoming stronger if possible.

For now though, she had to deal with her anger with unable to deal with the Shield Demon, as she couldn't show the public her darker side of herself. She knew that if that were to happen, her mother would have her head. So she had one of the Shadows loyal to her to keep an eye out for her mother's Shadows so that they wouldn't report back to her mother about her actions.

With a dark smirk she looked down at the demi-human that she had her foot on its face and as she raised her foot of its face, she said darkly, "Well demi-human, after tonight we won't be seeing each other for some time, so tonight well be special. I'll be giving you something to remind you of me by and remind you who you belong to."

And with that she undressed, where she picked up a rod. Seeing the rod, the male demi-human shivered in fear as he realized what was about to happen. Revealing her true face, someone who loves to cause pain and suffering, she said, "Now, let's have some fun."

Whilst the room was full of screams that night, thanks to the magic that was around the room, no one heard anything within the room. During that time, a single Shadow who was keeping watch on the First Princess wanting to find prove of her crimes against the Shield Hero was caught and imprisoned.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Kingdom of Melromarc, Castle Town, __Ulthane's Store__, 8th of January 740_

Naofumi awoke from two strange dreams, the first was where he was in a village of some kind, the sky was an ominous red, and the sky was literally being torn apart by some mysterious force, an ominous aura emanating from the fractures, the fractures were an ominous purple in colour. From the fractures in reality, dropping like hell spawn, came demonic beasts of destruction; zombies and skeletons armed with rusty armor and swords, interdimensional wasps and many plague related insects poured in and started rampaging remembered seeing himself defending the village by some kind of rope shield, as he summoned a green like shields and a metal casings to protect the villagers.

He had no idea where the village was, but he knew that it was real and the monsters were going to attack soon. If it wasn't for the past dreams which came true, he would have thought he was having a crazy messed up dream, but now he knew that this dream was a warning of what to come. He realized that this must be his Clairvoyance power that he meant to have, something that until a few months ago he never had or so he thought. As until he decided to do his comic, he wasn't remember his dreams that well, but now he was getting somewhat better in doing so.

Now if it wasn't for the next dream, he might be able to draw the village to the tee, as he could see it very clearly. Which was the first time he was able to do so. But his next dream scared him that all thoughts of the village vanished. The next dream was of him and an army facing off a HUGE turtle. Huge was putting it kindly, it was monstrous, if it wasn't for the head and legs and it moving about, you would have thought it was a huge mountain. It had a small village, rope bridges, caves and other things you would expect to see on a mountain with a village.

Now he and the army was facing huge bats, as well as many others including those that resemble gorillas, yetis, floating eyeballs, caterpillar-like familiars and even zombies. Many people were killed in the dream, as people fought on and on, but not making a dent in the huge turtle. Naofumi had to admit, if it wasn't for these things trying to kill him in the dream, he would have thought this would be an ideal place to live.

Either way, the dream went on until they got to a strange room where he found the other three heroes captured in some sort of dome. There was a man with white hair that fought him and a few others with gravity and lightning magic, the dream ended with him and the other stuck to the ground thanks to the gravity magic, as a lightning spell was going to hit them.

As he started to draw what he could remember, mainly the turtle and the monsters, from the paper that he found in one of the draws, he realized one thing - he needed to get much stronger than he ever hoped he had to. If he wanted to prove himself that he wasn't the person that he was made out to be, he would need to save those who fought against the turtle. But to do so, he had to become much stronger, learn raise his attack magic to levels higher than anything thing else. He had to gain power. But as he drew the turtle, he felt he had at least a few months, the dream was to show him that he had to become more powerful than he thought he would have to.

The main thing he had to work on was to find a way to deal with the undead and the insects that he knew would come much sooner, he knew that the shields alone would only get him so far. He would have to learn healing magic to use against the undead and fire magic to use against the insects.

Although he had these dreams, he felt much better, less angry then he did the day before. So much that he was willing to think more clearly, whilst he wouldn't trust anyone for a long time, he was willing to show them that he wasn't like how the bitch and her father portrayed him.

Just as he finished his drawings, Crusch came into the room and with a bow, she said, "Lord Naofumi, my Master asked if you could join him for breakfast?"

"Sure, I have no problems with that." admitted Naofumi, in fact he had a few questions for her master. So asking her to leave for a few moments to get dressed, which she did, he got dressed and left the room where Crusch led him to the dining room.

_**o0OoO0o**_

The dining room was down near the forge, it was huge and looked medievil with two different sizes of tables, one to fit Ulthane's size and another to fit a normal human being. As he set down, Ulthane asked, "How are you feeling today?"

"Not too bad thank you, much better than I felt yesterday." Naofumi informed the Maker, as Crusch left to get the food.

"That's good to hear," Ulthane said with a smile, happy that Naofumi didn't seem to be as angry as he did the day before, "so what have you got planned today?"

"A few things, the first is to find someone other than you who's willing to help me." Naofumi informed the huge man, "I need money so I can get stronger and by things for the coming Waves. After that, I'm going to try and level up as much as possible. As I'll be facing some undead and insects at some point in the future. And I need to learn more about a huge turtle."

"How do you know that?" Ulthane asked with interest.

So Naofumi explained about his dream and how he thought that it was his Clairvoyance power warning him what is to come and have him get ready. He also showed the Maker the pictures of the things he meant to be up against.

As he gave the rough drawings to Ulthane, the dwarf like man paled as he saw the turtle. "Are, are you sure about this turtle?"

"Whilst I need to finish the drawing off, but I believe its best as I can get it right now." Naofumi told the blacksmith, "What's wrong?"

"These words? Early, extremely dangerous and such?" asked Ulthane, not answering Naofumi's question just yet, as Crusch returned with the food and stood near the doorway just in case they needed her.

"It's these feelings that I have when I have these visions," explained Naofumi, "just some clues to what to expect. What's going one here?"

"This picture reminds me of an old story that I was told when I was a child," Ulthane informed the Shield Hero, "the Great Four Beasts. I can't remember much about the story, but these beasts were meant to be the last resort. If at some point this world was unable to beat the Waves, these Calamity Beasts would appear and kill thousands upon thousands of people to gain souls so that they can seal the Waves of Calamity for at least another two hundred or so years. Either way, these beasts won't suppose to show up unless this world is on the brink of ruin by the Waves of Disaster, but you said you had to fight it?" asked the blacksmith, a bit worried as Naofumi nodded at this.

"That's not right," Ulthane told the young man, "my memory is foggy, but I don't believe it's the Cardinal Heroes job to fight them more the opposite actually." he said with a frustrated tone trying to figure out why Naofumi would need to fight one of the Guardian Beasts. "From what I can remember, the Heroes meant to let the beasts do their job, so that they can get the souls to seal the world from the Waves of Calamity and so protecting it for a few hundred years. So for it to appear earlier than it should, puts things out of balance. Something that could end the world instead of saving it." This worried Ulthane, he wished he could remember more about the story.

"Is there anything else you can remember about this story of yours?" asked Naofumi, hoping to learn more.

"Sadly no, I have to contact a few people to find out more, only a few people know about this story so it might take time for me to learn about it." explained Ulthane, "For now, you need to train and get stronger while leveling up as much as possible."

"That's the plan." admitted Naofumi.

"To help you, I'll lend you Crusch to help you level up." Ulthane informed Naofumi.

"And how would that help me?" asked the Shield Hero, remembering his time with the bitch and how nothing happened.

"When the First Princess was in your team, didn't you get any experience points when she defeated the monsters that you fought?" asked the Maker.

"No, I thought that I could only gain exp from the monsters that I defeated myself." Naofumi told Ulthane, as a dark aura began to form from the Shield Hero.

"Oh no, you can invite or recruit people or creatures into a group, any monsters that they defeat you too gain the exp, I thought the First Princess would have told you this." Ulthane informed the young man. He began to get worried as the aura began to get stronger, and had a hint of red in it.

"No, no, the damn bitch did not tell me about this." Naofumi admitted with a dark sneer, as he remembered all the hard work that he had done the last day to get to level two. He was angry, not only didn't the bitch tell him this, which would have made things so much easier, but by now the other heroes would be so much stronger than him, it would take him a while for him to catch up to them. As they had more companions than him and so they would have gotten more exp than him by now, so many levels ahead of him.

Ulthane was worried, it looked like that Naofumi was going to let his anger get away from him. Not that the Maker could blame him, but the Shield Hero's anger could awaken the Wrath Curse and cause more problems than needed right now, as the Shield Hero wouldn't be able to control the power. So with a sigh he said, "Lord Naofumi, please calm down, remember what I said, you need to control your anger. I understand why you're angry and rightly so, but you need to calm down. As if you don't, you could awaken the Wrath Curse and unless you can control it, it'll control you."

Naofumi knew the dwarf like man was right, but he couldn't help it, he was so angry at bitch and her father. It took everything that he had not to leave the shop and hunt down the two and kill the two, even if he didn't have the attack points to harm them. Taking a few deep breaths, Naofumi tried to calm himself, before he realized that Ulthane was right, he should try and control his anger. As if he didn't, bitch and her father would win, if his anger got the better of him and controlled him.

"You're right, but I'm unhappy because of the damn First Princess, the other heroes are levels ahead of me." said Naofumi with a sigh.

"Whilst I can't help you with gaining the lost time in levelling up, I can help you to catch up with the help of Crusch." explained the blacksmith, "For the next week or so, until you decide what you are going to do, I'll have Crusch train you and at the same time she'll help you try to catch up in levels."

"That'll be helpful," admitted Naofumi, "but I have two questions about Crusch. Why does she call you Master? Is it because she's your apprentice or some sort of slave? And what level is she?"

"Crusch is level thirty," explained Ulthane, "and yes, she is my slave, I bought her some time ago to help me around the shop and to gain monster parts and other things to help create my weapons."

"So there's slavery in this world?" Naofumi asked not liking the idea and feeling a bit disgusted at it, but he should have realized that seeing that this world was set in the old times, he shouldn't be too surprised by this fact. Sure in his world slavery was outlawed, but that didn't mean that it didn't still happen.

As an economics student, he studied this sort of thing where he found out that most slave labor just shifted titles, but not really much else. Sure people get paid now, but that's only to make it look like they were in fact normal workers, with family and meals and a house over their heads, but that's after doing hours upon hours of hard work. This made it harder for the police to find the slaves and their masters, normally, it would be the wife or husband who's the master and the other is the slave or it was possible that the married couple were both the masters and the children were the slaves.

"That it does," admitted Ulthane, "I know in your world they might have mabe slavery outlawed or no longer needed it or it could be common to you, but that is your old world and in this one here they still have it. It gives people free labor and a way to punish the guilty. Do people get kidnapped to be enslaved? Yes. But there's little people can do about that, as each kingdom has their own laws about this, mainly as long as you don't kidnap people from that kingdom, they got this don't ask don't care policy. Now, there are some like this kingdoms Queen who's trying to change the way things are done, but it is slow going and it's unsure if it'll make and difference. I can say I treat Crusch as part of my family."

"Hmm, so does that mean you by them off a blackmarket or something?" Naofumi asked the man.

"We do have a blackmarket, but people don't get slaves there, but from an auction house." the Maker informed young hero, "But you need a licence, which can be gotten from the slavery auction house. The slavery auction house in this town mainly deals with demi-humans, as they think they are lower race. They would only do human slaves if they committed a crime or certain people want to make other people disappear."

Naofumi nodded at this, unsure how to feel about this. Part of him felt disgusted at this, that people would use other people for their own needs or make people disappear. But another part of him, a darker part, thought how useful a slaves could be, being able to use them to fight. But the problem is that he didn't know how the slaves were kept in line, so that they wouldn't betray their Master. This reason give him pause about getting one. Whilst Crusch almost worshiped like a god, he wasn't sure if the other demi-humans would do the same. It all depends on how badly they were treated by humans since the last Shield Hero appeared, as he knew that strong resentment would alter one believes in gods and such. It was the same in his world.

He put that to the back of his mind for now, as when he heard that there was a blackmarket, he got an idea, one that should help him. So he asked the blacksmith, "About this blackmarket you mentioned, do you know where it is?"

"Yes I do, as I sometimes send Crusch there to get some rare or outlawed material to make weapons." explained Ulthane, he also realized why the Shield Hero asked him this and so went on to say, "I know what you might be thinking, if you are unable to find someone who is willing to buy and sell things to you by going to the blackmarket to do so, I'm sorry to say that won't be possible."

"Why is that?" Naofumi asked in interest, just as he finished his breakfast.

"Because you are too infamous and too much of a risk." said Ulthane, "You see, the blackmarket as you can guess has many shady characters and you can find many illegal going ons there. The kingdom knows about this, but let the blackmarkets be, because most of the blackmarket clients are the Nobles that the King has to keep in check. Well a lot of the people who work there are the criminal underbelly, they do shady things like robbery, kidnapping even assassinations, they have have a symbiotic relationship with the royal family. In return for keeping the place going, they would give information to the Shadows of the Queen. But you have two problems:

"First, you have to know your way around there or you could end up in worse shape than before, there's a lot of people who would kidnap you for slavery or just kill you outright." Ulthane warned the Shield Hero, "Second, with the blackmarket having a symbiotic relationship with the royal family, they'll try and not and upset them. With the fulse reports of you raping the First Princess and with the King in chagre and angry at you, he would be more than happy to shut down the blackmarket. In fact, he has problems with the market for some time and has been looking for a why to close it down, so if he found that they were helping you, he would close it down without a second thought."

"Damn it." sneered Naofumi, angry at this, once again the damn king was screwing him over, making it hard for him to get things.

"I can help you there for now though," explained the blacksmith, trying to stop Naofumi's anger before it got away from him, "anything you need to buy or sell I can do for you or have Crusch do it. At least until you find someone to buy and sell things to."

Naofumi calmed down a bit here, glad to hear that at least he had a way to get things should he unable to find someone to buy and sell things from. But he knew that in the long run he'll have to work something out himself, as he knew that there might be things he might want to get himself but wouldn't know it until he looked at the items himself.

"If there's nothing else and you don't need Crusch right now, I would like to train and level up now." Naofumi told the Maker, wanting to try and catch up with the other heroes, as he knew that the future was going to be hard and he needed to be stronger to survive these attacks.

"No, I don't need her this morning, but this afternoon I'll need her." Ulthane informed the young man. Then the Maker stood up to get ready to leave, when he suddenly said, "Whilst you are levelling up this week, I would like you to think about something. What are you willing to do to survive?"

"What do you mean?" Naofumi asked with a bit of confusion.

"Well, are you going to be a true hero and do whatever it takes to protect people?" asked Ulthane, "Or, are you going to be some sort of anti-hero, help if you are getting paid for it or fits your needs? Or, are you going to be a true villain, doing evil deeds, only doing helping when the Waves come along? I say the last two would make things easier for you, but it'll be down to you to decide."

"Err?" Naofumi said in confusion, "Are you saying that I should be a villain or something instead of a hero?"

"No, I'm trying to tell you that you should do what you think will help you get stronger." explained Ulthane, "There might be times where you'll have to do things that you wouldn't normally do to survive. So my question is what are you willing to do to survive in this world?"

"I -" Naofumi was stumped at this question, he wasn't sure what he was willing to do to survive in this world. A big part of him wanted to be the hero that he was summoned to be, to show everyone that he wasn't the type of guy that bitch and her father made him out to be. But at the same time though, another part of him didn't want to do a thing for this damn world and only help out in the Waves so that this world could survive so that he could be sent home. During that time he wasn't sure what he would do other than trying to get stronger, how? He wasn't sure. So he replied honestly, "I don't know."

"And that's why I asked you to think about it as you level up this week." Ulthane told the Shield Hero, "And so you know, no matter what path you take, as long as you save this world and keep the balance, we'll won't care what you do." And with that Ulthane left the room leaving a confused Naofumi behind as the hero thought about what was said.

After a few minutes of thinking about it, no answer came to Naofumi, so he decided he would think about it later on. For now he needed to get try and catch up with the other heroes, even stronger than them, so he could show them not to look down on him. So turning to Crusch, he asked her, "Is there anything you need before we go to the fields?"

"I just need to get my armour and my sword My Lord." Crusch informed him.

"In that case I'll meet you outside the store." Naofumi told the slave, before he got up and leave the room.

_**To Be Continued!**_

_**Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END:**_ Here ends another chapter of The Rising of Shield Demon, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and if you enjoyed the chapter, please leave some feedback and let me know what you thought of it. I'm hoping that in the next chapter we'll FINALLY get to meet Raphtalia, as I'm planning to do a time skip… so you know, the plan is to get Raphtalia much sooner than in the anime and novel.

Once again chapter would have been out sooner, but I had a problem with my laptop which forced me to take it into the shops to get sorted. Because of this, writing been slower and I had to use my phone to write some of the chapter, which is hard enough for me. Not only that, but the mood to write wasn't with me so that took longer than I hoped.

Now there's been a few people why wants a Brainwashing Shield, but I'm sorry to say that there'll be no such shield. For the simple reason that if he had such a shield, it would make things easier and that's something I don't want.

Now I have some people who don't want the Lust Shield whilst others do, so I'm putting up a poll for you to decide if the Shield happens or not:

Yes, give Naofumi the Lust Shield…

No, don't give Naofumi the Lust Shield…

Now before we get to the important not that I talked about at the start, I would like to inform you that I'm going to be working on an Omake for Dragon Overlord with the person who is helping me with my stories. So the next update for this story won't be happening until after the New Year unless things change. So, seeing how I don't know when I'll finish the Omake, I say this now just in case: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

_**IMPORTANT NOTE! **_

This is important, me and the person who is helping me write this story, Raven, are in a disagreement with Naofumi's Strengthening Method. I believe that with Naofumi using skill points to make his shields stronger and gaining new skills, along with absorbing Monster/Demon Cores to make him stronger and give him new abilities. To me that's two of three of the other Strengthening Method, leaving out the rarity Strengthening Method. To me, Naofumi's Strengthening Method, where he uses Skill and Attribute Points and gain new powers as he levels up and shields, makes him stronger. Especially with him becoming a True Alchemist

The thing is, Raven believes that each hero should only have one strengthening method what specialized to them, that their own strengthening method could strengthen the other heroes weapons. But I believe that my Strengthening Method for Naofumi uses some of the Strengthening Methods already used.

Motoyasu Kitamura: Spirit Enchantment is simply giving a weapon the fragment of a demon's soul to absorb (absorbing defeated monsters) through which special powers can be granted. Status Enchant Stats can be increased.

But I'm planning to use Monster and Demon Cores for this, to absorb the Cores into the shield which would help which not only would help with giving him new stats, but depending on the Monster and Demon give the shield new powers too. But Raven believes that if a common citizen could have an item that had multiple Cores in it, then he doesn't think it could be a strengthening method. But I don't see it like that, but I would like to hear your thoughts about this, as the citizens would be limited to how many Core they could use Naofumi would not.

Ren Amaki: Energy for Reinforcement is indicated as proficiency and displayed as a fraction which indicates the ability of the user with that weapon. If a weapon is used repeatedly the user gains proficiency and can later choose to turn proficiency into skill points using "Energy Grant" when the proficiency reaches the max. Energy Grant is a hidden power that can be unlocked by using energy granted from resetting the weapon's skill proficiency. Additionally, items absorbed into the weapon can be converted into energy.

Now I could be wrong about this, but I'm going to be using Skill Points to do what I think is the same thing, to make it stronger. And unlike Ren's way, depending on the shield, as they level up at certain points the shields gain extra powers. Now I'll admit I could be wrong about this, but it sounds about right.

Itsuki Kawasumi: Rarity By using energy, it is possible to increase the weapon's rarity. With an increased rarity the weapons overall ability will improve. Rarity levels include Common (C), Uncommon (UC), Rare (R), Super Rare (SR), Super Rare+ (SR+), and Artifact (AF). Skill Points are points used to change the rarity of the item or to awaken the real power of weapon. Using the "Energy grant" some items can be turned into energy and skill points.

Tempering is the strengthening of equipment through reforging it using ore.

Now this is something I am having difficulty understanding, I can't how rarity can alter the weapons strength and powers. From the way Raven tried to explain it, it is like in Darksiders 2, where Death breaks down other weapons to change the rarity of his weapons. Even then I'm having problems understanding it and so not sure how to work it.

As for using ore to strengthen the hero's equipment, it reminds me of Motoyasu's Strengthening Methods where he uses monster's/demon's souls and absorb them into his weapon. Which case I see that the Core would do the same job. But I could be wrong about this.

The way I see it, with Naofumi's gaming like Strengthening Method, he has two of the Hero's Strengthening Methods, which over time would make him stronger than them already. But Raven believes that Itsuki who isn't using Cores but items and material, meaning he would pick up the core method and share it with the spear hero and bitch most likely told the sword hero, so it's a method that already the other Heroes could be using so calling it a strengthening method personally for Naofumi doesn't feel right, so that would make Naofumi only strengthening method that every time he leveled up he could put points into his weapon and stats to increase their value. But by doing this he would be no stronger than any other hero, which I disagree with, because every Hero has their own strengthening method and if he only had one just like the other three only had one then he should equal with them in strength. The only reason he was stronger in the anime and manga was because he used the Wrath Shield and his strengthening method during that time was his anger against everyone who kept on trying to take stuff from him. That was the only thing that was keeping him equal with the others he had nothing else, so he still would need to take the other three strengthening methods along with the vessel weapons strengthening methods if he's ever going to be the turtle and all the other enemies after the Pope.

But from what I remember from the WN, they didn't believe each other about their methods until Naofumi pointed it out, so I don't see the problem, Sure I could be wrong, but that's why I want your thoughts about this.

And if you do want Strengthening Methods, I would like new ones, as I'm trying to keep the heroes as far as apart as I can and mistrusting Naofumi. So I would like new Strengthening Methods that Naofumi use, ones that the past Heroes might have used and Naofumi could find them.


	10. Chapter 9

_**Author's Note:**_ I'm looking for the reviewer/PM sender who sent me an idea for a shield, the idea I believe was where Naofumi gives his shield a core of the chimera. It would give Naofumi the ability to alter his slaves/monsters, like giving Filo diamond wings after feeding her egg with a diamond or a crystal. I can't find the PM and so I'm looking for whoever sent me the idea so that they can resend the idea. I hope whoever you are, is still reading the story and remember the idea.

_**Chapter Nine… **_

_**Demons and an Angle!**_

Naofumi didn't have to wait for long for Crusch come out of her Master's store wearing what looked to be like a leather shirt with some arm guards and a leather skirt around her waist. Naofumi only noticed that the only part of her that looked off with a specially-designed footwear that looked it like razor-sharp talons covering both her feet. He also noticed that she was wielding not one but multiple weapons going from a bow with a few arrows, a large shield and finally a sword on her hip.

"Before we leave, can I ask why you're wearing all that and I would assume a blacksmith would actually wear chain armour?" Naofumi asked.

"That's actually a very bad idea," explained Crusch as she looked at Naofumi and shook her head, "You need to know what your fighting style is before you choose any armour or weapons. Then you need to think about how you would need to alter it. As a lizard-folk, I naturally have thick armour around my whole body. It takes quite the hard swing to actually break through it and seeing how high my level is, I'm pretty safe to walk around in a few monster areas without having to worry about them hurting me. But it's still good for me to wear some armour, but wearing too much bulky armour can slow me down or hinder my movement not the various parties ideas. Normally I only use ta sword and shield combination to fight but you need to learn how to protect against long-range and close-range enemies so I'll be helping you to train lower out."

"Is there anything we should do before we leave town?" Naofumi asked the young lizardwoman.

"Unless you need to stoke up on items, we should go to the town's church, My Lord." Crusch informed the Shield Hero.

"I need to pick up some basic supplies that the bitch stole from me and something special but why would we need to go to the church for?" asked Naofumi, wondering why he should go there.

"Ok and don't you know My Lord?" Crusch asked in confusion and worry. Confusion, as she thought that someone would have told her Lord why he had to go to the church, as it was one of the most important things if he was going to fight the Waves. Worried, as she was about to tell him something that would make him angry, that was something she didn't want but knew that he had to know about this.

So with a deep sigh, she explained, "The reason that we need to check on the Dragon Hourglass to see how much time we have before the next Wave. I thought the king would have told you, heroes, this gives you time to level up and prepare "

"You gotta be kidding me," Naofumi said darkly, "I knew about the Dragon Hourglass, but I just thought that it only warned them about the First Wave. The damn king never told me that I would need to visit the hourglass to learn about the time left before the next Wave, nor did he tell me where it was. Damn it, once again it looks like that the bitch and her father wants me dead, what fuck is wrong with them?" This was like the hundredth time he'd thought this; they hated him all because of the actions of the last Shield Hero.

He had to wonder, was all this hate for the Shield Hero because he helped some demi-humans to gain more freedom, or was there something more. He couldn't see all this hate, for one thing, there had to be more to it _right_? But he knew that there was no real way to know for sure, as they say, history is written by the victors not only that, but the information could be long gone and only a handful knows for sure like the royal family. If that was the case, he knew for sure there was no way in hell that he would see such information. So he could only guess that there's no to this, never knowing the full story as to why he was hated by the bitch and her father.

Naofumi would like nothing more than to let his anger go, to do _something _to let his frustration go, but he knew that he needed to keep calm. He needed to show the people of this town that he wasn't like the person that they thought him he was. So taking a few deep breaths, Naofumi said, "Let's do this… I may not like how this damn kingdom has been treating me, but I do need to know how long before the next Wave so I can be better prepared for it."

On the way to the church, Naofumi went to a shop to get some rope and some of his supplies back that was stolen, so that he could get the _**Rope Shield**_ like from his dream. The problem was that the store that he went to wouldn't sell him anything, all because of the so-called crime that he meant of committed. So waiting outside, he had to ask Crusch to get the rope for him, which she did happily. But through the window, he could see that the storekeeper wasn't happy as they knew who Crusch was buying the rope for. But because of who her master was, they couldn't risk upsetting him so sold the rope to her.

Once she got the rope for him, Naofumi fed it to his shield to create the Rope Shield. And whilst he was walking to the church, Naofumi checked its stats, for just equipping the shield he got fifteen physical defences and twenty magical defences. For its other skills, it was as follows:

_**Rope Shield - Level 1**_

_Requirements:_

Level 5

_Equipment Bonus: _

Air Strike Shield (Unmastered!)

_Special Effect(s): _

Rope - 4m long

Naofumi felt bothered that he only got a skill and no stats from this shield, he had hoped to get some decent stats from this shield. As he really needed them if he wanted to get stronger. But from his dream though, the Air Strike Shield had a decent skill to protect people with, at least that was something. If he couldn't learn any magic before the Wave hits, he would need to learn how to use the Air Strike Shield in different ways. But that would be for later, for now, he had to check how long he had before the attack happens.

Now it wasn't long before he got to the church, but along the way and when he got into the church, he got dark looks. If looks could kill, he was sure that he would have died a hundred times over. Naofumi had hoped that some wouldn't believe the lies that were going around about him, but other than Crusch and her Master, no one seemed to believe in him and made him wonder if it was worth saving this world.

Once in the church, Naofumi went up to the huge hourglass, it had five glass orbs with sand running through it, on either side of the orbs, were golden dragons. As he got close to the hourglass, a beam of light came from his shield that hit the hourglass that showed how much time was left.

_**D23 - H22 M45 - S10**_

_**D23 - H22 M45 - S09**_

_**D23 - H22 M45 - S08**_

It would seem that he had just under twenty-four days before the next Wave would hit the world. Naofumi was glad to hear that he had more time to train than he expected. Sure, under a month wasn't much time to get stronger, but with the ability to level up and these skill points that do so, if he trained right and get the right shields, he could become strong enough to defend himself with ease.

As he was leaving the church, he noticed an hourglass symbol had appeared on his hub, as he focused on it, it showed the time left before the next Wave would appear. _'At least I can keep track of how much time I have.'_ Naofumi thought to himself, somewhat content at the results of going to the church. Now that they finished with the church, with nothing else to get, Naofumi and Crusch left to go to the fields to level up. During which point Naofumi invited the young lizardwoman to his party.

_**o0OoO0o**_

Once the two were in the fields, Crusch asked, "My Lord, could you tell me the shields that you think is useful in a fight?"

"Well I do have two shields that I can use right now," explained Naofumi, "I have the _**Appraisal Shield**_ that allows me to identify monsters and other things, and gives me defence and attack bonuses against monsters, but only after I appraised the monster enough times. The other shield that I find useful is the _**Tantric Shield**_, it attracts monsters to me. I have two other shields that might be useful to me, the _**Spiked Iron Shield **_and the _**Rope Shield**_, but I can't use them until I'm level five."

"What do these two shields do?" asked Crusch.

"The _**Spiked Iron Shield**_ gives me a counter-attack so that those who attack me, would get hit by spikes." explained the Shield Hero, "The _**Rope Shield**_ has an ability called Air Strike Shield and seems to allow me to use rope."

"Interesting," Crusch said thoughtfully, "it would seem that we need to get you to level five before I can help you train My Lord. Once I saw what they can do, I'll know how to help you train."

Naofumi would prefer to level up instead, wanting to catch up on the levels that he lost out on because of the bitch playing him and be on the same level as the other heroes. As they walk from the church, he tried to keep his anger under control, he was thinking about his Attribute and Skill Points and how he could level them up without wasting the points that he gained from levelling up. That's when he remembered that for some of them, he could do so by doing certain things. So if he wanted to save the points and put them somewhere useful, he would have to train.

Before Naofumi could ask what she had in mind for training, a red five-foot circle appear with a pentagram within it. Then a few seconds later, the earth opened up to reveal a demonic pit where flames were coming out of it. But a few seconds of it appearing, Crusch pulled Naofumi away as more than a dozen light blue-skinned demons appeared. They were giving off a demonic aura and they were at least seven-foot tall.

Naofumi saw as a few of them coming out of the pit, they were holding massive swords, Cleavers. They had craggy faces with a strange eerie smile as they began walking towards the castle. Naofumi took a closer look at them, saw that they had glowing red eyes and the four horns on their head that showed off the demonic image they wore nothing from the waist up as his chest was covered into serpent-like tattoos rippling under his muscles. They were wearing a black leather-like jeans, with brown straps, and metal kneecaps. Naofumi also saw that they were wearing an arm gauntlet, which had a demonic-looking face on them. They also had stunted wings on their back.

As these demon-like creatures appeared and Crusch pulling Naofumi away, the Shield Hero had to ask as he tried and failed to stop Crusch! "What's going on Crusch, what are those creatures?"

"They demons My Lord," explained Crusch as they hid behind a huge boulder, "they are known Phantom Guards, one of the foot shoulders of the Demon World."

"What are they doing here and why aren't we dealing with them?" asked Naofumi, as he watched the demons get closer to the town.

"I don't know why they're here for, they normally stay on their own land on one of the floating islands." admitted Crusch, "As for why we're not fighting them, will you're not going to fight them, but I will be. You're too weak right now to face them."

Wanting to know what level these demons were, Naofumi transformed his shield into the _**Appraisal Shield **_and appraised the demons. Doing this Naofumi learned that these demons were known as _**Phantom Guards**_ and their levels were between ten to fifteen, and their max HP was around 1200 and that their max attack was around 200 whilst their max defence was around 120.

Naofumi could see why Crusch pulled him away, he was indeed too weak against these demons, he only had fifty-five points in defence. He realized that he would have no chance of defeating them, in fact, he would more than likely get himself killed. (He was no fool to think that if he died, he would respawn in a church or at some alter. When he died, he was dead and no way back.)

"My Lord, stay here whilst I deal with these demons," Crusch told him firmly, "if one comes near you or I'm overwhelmed or losing, run back to town as fast as possible and warn the others. I'll try and hold them back as long as I can until reinforcements come."

Naofumi looked unhappy about this, unable to help the lizardwoman, but he knew that with their attack and defence, he wasn't able to do much to help. They had attacks that could pass his defence with ease and kill him, but still, he hated the thought of someone defending him and he wasn't able to do a thing to help in return. All he could do was hide behind a boulder.

"But…" began Naofumi, but Crusch interrupted him as she took out her bow, "But nothing My Lord, yours along with the other three Cardinal Heroes are more important than any life, most people would be honoured to give up their lives so you can live, to defeat the Waves of Calamity. Please, if the worst happens, run straight back to my master and get help, don't try and save me. I need to try and beat these creatures before they get to the castle."

Before Naofumi could say another word, tell her that seeing how they were only roaming about they could return to town and inform them what was happening, Crusch quickly notched an arrow and fired it at the first level ten demon, hitting them right in between the eye, causing him to fall down dead and giving him 60 EXP. In doing so though, all of the other enemies immediately looked towards her and let out a roar as they charged. Here the lizardwoman jumped over the rock and charged at the enemy, firing arrow after arrow to get closer to them.

Naofumi wanting to know if she had any luck in defeating these demons, used his _**Appraisal Shield **_to appraise her, to see what her stats were.

_**Appraisal Shield Levelled Up!**_

Naofumi was shocked that the shield would level up at this point of time when he was in danger. Part of him had to think that of all times for one of his shields to level up, it had to be now. Either way, he looked at Crusch stats. She was level thirty with HP of 1500, her attack was 350 Magical Defence, 150 whilst her Defence was 300.

Seeing her stats Naofumi was a bit confused, he had thought that for someone at level thirty and a blacksmith her stats would be better for someone at level thirty.

Either way, all Naofumi could do was stand and watch as Crusch fires six arrows as she ran towards the demons, she barely scratched three of them well separating a few of them by having them try and dodge out of the way of the attack given that she was running closer.

Seeing how the arrows weren't doing much effort in dealing with these demons, Crusch dropped her bow and immediately pulled out her sword. Naofumi didn't blame her, bows were for range attacks, the moment that the enemy comes running at you, that weapon is useless unless you got the height advantage. It also helped if she was able to get in a hit, but not only were these demons were faster than they looked, but their huge Clavers allowed them to shield themselves. So the only option was to attack them at close range.

She did as much damage as she could by using the bow and arrows, she pulled out her sword and got into a fighting position and waited for her enemies. She didn't have to wait for long, as within seconds, the first one immediately charged at her, raising his sword high into the air. Where a few seconds later, brought the cleaver down with a devastating amount of power, however, Crusch just smiled as she raised up her shield and tilted it sideways causing the sword to let out a loud scraping sound as it was redirected down the path of the shield and away from her.

But that was not all she did, she continued the move by shifting her sword and thrusting it forward, stabbing and piercing the demon's arm, doing a great amount of damage. But knowing that she could not waste any time with how many demons there were, she immediately pulled her blade out of the arm of the demon and pushed it away with as much force she could with her shield, knocking it to the side.

But as she did this, she saw another demon trying to hit her on her side, so to protect herself, she quickly raised the sword and used the enemy's own momentum to increase her own speed. By doing this, as her sword made contact, it allowed her to spin faster as she slammed her shield right into the next demon. Making sure that the demon wasn't able to make a counter-attack, she quickly used her clawed feet and jumped onto its stomach sending the claws digging straight into his gut.

She then took another step, clawing his chest to do another step on his face badly clawing it, as she jumped up as high as she could and saw into the middle of the crowd with reluctant she unstrapped her shield and tossed it in the middle of a group of them flat side up. Here she started to chant, "I ordered thee, decipher the law of Nature and summon a scorching fire that burst and incinerates my target. _**Fire Burst**_!"

As she finished her chant, magical symbols appeared whilst she was still in mid-air, where a red magical energy came from her hand and went into the shield. Here the shield became like fire, as a huge blast of fire shot towards four of the demons, killing them instantly. The four demons were at level ten and on their deaths give Naofumi 60 EXP each, which allowed him to level up to level three.

_**LEVELLED UP!**_

_+10 Health!_

_+10 Defence!_

_+5 Mana Points!_

_+5 Spirit Points!_

_+10 Skill Points! _

As she landed within the flames, something that didn't seem to hurt her, Crusch pulled out her hammer and cleaver.

Naofumi could only watch slack-jawed at how Crusch was fighting against these demons so far, with how she used her shield. Sure, she used it to block the attacks, but she also used the shield to redirect the attacks too, not only that, but she used the shield for her fire spell. Now that she's dropped her shield and bow, he had to wonder what she's going to do with her hammer and cleaver, more specifically how is she going to use them.

As Crusch quickly shuang her cleaver into one of the other demons, she was able to get a good cut on him causing him to fall down where she immediately turned her heel and swing the hammer onto another one, crushing him to the ground with the hammer. Killing these two-level twelve demons, he gained 70 EXP for each of them.

Now, not wasting any time, she immediately turned using the moment of the swing to swing the sword again into the next few demons. But the problem was that as she was attacking some of the demons, one was able to catch her off guard. Seeing this, Naofumi moved as fast as he could to block the attack, whilst he was able to block the attack, he was pushed back a few feet and lost eighty points of his health, leaving him with ninety points of health.

Crusch gave the Shield Hero a sad smile in thanks as she pushed him back behind the boulder for his own protection, as she immediately brought her hammer up and smashed it into the ground to create a shock wave to knock all the demons around them back a few matters. Here Crusch used some sort of fire attack with her sword that sent flames from the sword that killed the demon that attacked her and harmed Naofumi, this one was level 15 and give them 110 EXP. As another demon attacked her, she once again used another fire attack, but for some reason, Naofumi didn't get any EXP whilst Crusch levelled up to 31.

Naofumi had to wonder why he wasn't able to gain any EXP when the last demon was defeated, when he was able to with the others. But his thoughts were interrupted when he saw an arrow flew down and change direction to hit the demon that Crusch was fighting, killing it instantly. Looking above to see where the arrow came from, Naofumi was shocked to see Itsuki above him. What shocked him wasn't the silver and gold armour he was wearing, but it was the beautiful white wings that were on the back of the armour. He could feel and the radiant energy he could feel coming off of them would seem to make the demons weaker and Flinch away at his presence.

Itsuki was wilding a golden bow with a red handle and curved tips, not only that, but it possesses multiple heart-shaped holes carved into its limbs, with extra appendages surrounding its handle that come together in the shape of a heart.

Seeing Itsuki, Naofumi saw the Bow Hero pull the string of the bow back were three light arrows appeared, where they were let go at the demons, it would seem the arrows were homing arrows. As they went after the demons, they try to dodge them at first or even when they try to outrun the arrows but they kept on chasing them until they get and killed them. With the defeat of these demons, the seven adventurers that joined the Bow Hero appeared and chased after the demons where they and the Bow Hero defeated the rest of the demons with the help of Crusch.

With the demons were defeated, Itsuki landed next to his group looking concerned. Seeing this, a man within a heavy armour and a huge moustache asked, "Lord Itsuki, what's wrong?"

"I didn't get any EXP for defeating those monsters." Itsuki informed his group as he transformed back to his normal self.

"Strange," said a female bow user, "we were able to gain the EXP from defeating those monsters. I wonder why you weren't able to get any?"

"I have no idea," Itsuki answered worriedly, then he thought of something and said as he looked around, "the only reason I can think of is that there's another hero around." Then he spotted Naofumi who was hiding behind the boulder, seeing the Shield Hero, the Bow Hero called out, "You damn coward Naofumi, get out here."

Naofumi sighed at this, but having no real reason to hide anymore, he came out of hiding. And with a sigh, he said, "Unlike you, I haven't got any attack points to fight off those creatures and who are you calling a coward Mister I can fly in the air away from my opponents? You're up there in the sky with the capability to fight whilst staying safe, whilst the rest of your group fighting on the ground fighting up close and personal." said Naofumi, annoyed at the Bow Hero for calling him a coward, when he did the exact same thing but had a way to fight.

As much as Itsuki hated Naofumi for what he did, he couldn't blame the older man in doing what he did. He too might have hide too if he didn't have the attack points or defence to do something, then again, unlike Naofumi, he considered himself as a true hero. So even if it meant he would die, he would stand up and defend the people in the name of justice.

"It wasn't until today, thanks to Crusch, that I was able to gain another level." Naofumi informed the Bow Hero, as he pointed the lizardwoman out.

Hearing this, Itsuki looked at the Demi-Human, when he saw that she was wearing a collar he asked, "Why is she wearing a collar for?"

"Because Lord Itsuki, she's a slave." explained one of Itsuki's companions.

"What!?" Itsuki asked in outrage, believing that no one, especially a hero, should have a slave, it was against his version of justice. "You bastard, why do you have a slave? We're heroes, we aren't meant to have slaves."

"First off we are in a different world where rules are different and in this case, where slavery is legal in this world." Naofumi informed the Bow Hero, "Next, she isn't my slave, she belongs to someone who is willing to help me. Lastly, what right do you have to say that I can't have a slave, when it's legal for me to have one? So if I'm unable to find a companion, I'll need to find another way to gain companions, if it means that I need to get a slave or two so be it."

"But as heroes, we have to show higher standards, show them what is right." Itsuki told the Shield Hero, pushing his own version of justice onto the older male. "We have to show them that slavery is wrong and shouldn't be allowed."

Naofumi couldn't believe the young male, the Bow Hero was delusional to think that he could change the thoughts of those in this world about slavery by himself. Sure, he too thought that it was wrong to have them depending on the situation and how it's properly done, but he wasn't delusion to think that he could alter this world's beliefs on how things should be done. Right now, all they should be focusing on, was fending off against the Waves not stupidly trying to change their laws or worse, get into their religious beliefs before they jump ship back to their worlds. Until it was over, they shouldn't try and alter things. As making big changes such as stopping slavery can make you enemies where you don't need them.

But he knew from the way that the Bow Hero talked, Naofumi believed that nothing he would say to Itsuki would change his mind about slavery or anything else, so it was best not to say anything. But instead, he asked, "Whatever you say Itsuki, do whatever you want and I'll do the same. But I do have two questions for you, first, is why are you back here in town? I suspect with the level you are now, these monsters have low EXP for you, so why come back? Second, how were you able to transform into that angel figure?"

"The reason that I'm here is because of my power to transform into an angel." Itsuki told Naofumi smugly, knowing that he had one up to this loser, this weakling that wasn't him. It felt great not being the one that was weak. He wasn't going to bully those who were helpless and would help them and the innocent, but he wasn't going to help someone who was a rapist. "I was informed by my companions, once I told them my thoughts as to what a hero meant to be, about cores that can give me extra powers, in this case, they informed me about how I could get a core that allows me to transform into an angel and use Holy Magic. Been told that if I use it often, the core becomes stronger and gives the user new powers and abilities. Hearing that, I couldn't turn down such a power, not even if it cost me one gold coin, as such power can help me to bring true justice to this world."

'_So that's what a core power looks like.'_ Naofumi thought to himself once he learned what the power was about and to learn that it becomes more powerful as you use it, he couldn't help but think how useful it was to have one. But as he listened to how much it would cost to get one, he knew that unless he made one, it would be some time before he would be able to get one. But then again, that was a Transformation Core, as he called it, he wasn't sure how much getting a core that altered a person stats could cost, it could be cheaper. But he realized that as a so-called rapist though, it could cost much more than normal either way.

"I see," Naofumi said simply, "in that case I'll see you around, for now, I need to get levelling up if I want to survive in this world." And with that without another word, the Shield Hero walked away from the Bow Hero and his group.

"Listen, if I hear that you have a slave, I show you my justice…" began Itsuki, but Naofumi waved it off by saying, "Yeah, yeah, whatever…" not really caring what the fool thought or said. As he said, he needed to level up if he wants to survive in this world. So he and Crusch went in search for somewhere for Naofumi to level up.

_**o0OoO0o**_

"So that was the power of a core?" Naofumi asked Crusch.

"A low-level one yes." admitted Crusch.

"Does that mean that the core came from a dead angel?" Naofumi asked in interest, finding it hard that an angel could die.

"Maybe, but at the same time an angel could have shared its power to create such a core." Crusch informed the young hero, "You see, there aren't as many angels as they would like to fight against the demons, so they give some of their power to create Angel Cores to create Holy Warriors to fight against demons. It would be up to the owners of these cores to make the Angel Cores stronger. It is rumoured that the Pope has an Angel Core that has become an Archangel Core."

"Really?" Naofumi asked with interest, he found it hard that a Pope would go out and level up. "I have to admit that I can't see someone like a Pope to go out and kill demons and monsters to level up."

"You do know that a Pope wasn't always been one right?" the lizardwoman asked Naofumi, which he had to admit was true, "He was once a priest and as such, he would have to protect towns and villages from demons and such, where he would be able to level up over the years. Each priest or nun would have an Angel Core to help fight off the demons with ease, it would be up to them to level up their core and acquire The Power Within. For a priest to become the next Pope, it is believed that a priest is required to have their Angel Cores become an Archangel Core. Which means defending the people and fighting against demons."

"I see, so if Itsuki works it right not only would he have the powers from upgrading his Legendary Bow, he would have powers of an Archangel." Naofumi thought out loud, "Hmm, he could become someone powerful who can stop by himself."

"Maybe, but very unlikely." Crusch informed Naofumi, "Even if he gains great power, remember, all four heroes are needed to defeat the Waves of Calamity as each Wave becomes much stronger than the last. Even if the Bow Hero gains the Archangel Core in time, he'll still have problems defeating the Waves alone."

"Shame, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to lift a finger for this damn world." Naofumi grumbled a bit, unhappy that he wasn't able to find a way out of helping this damn world.

Crusch was upset that the people of this kingdom had destroyed Naofumi's faith in this world, that he was hoping to find a way out of saving it himself. But she had faith in him, as even though he was looking for a way out of helping in defeating the Waves, he was still willing to do what he could to help. To her, it meant that he wasn't all bad, as he could have easily sit back and do nothing and let the Waves destroy the world.

Either way, it was her job to help him level up for the next week, so wanting to deal with that for now, she asked, "So how much experience points do you need for your next level?"

"Hmm, seeing how I got some great EXP from that last fight, I was able to level up to level four, so that wasn't too bad." Naofumi informed the demi-human with a small smile, "But for level four, let's see…"

With that he happened his stats to see how much EXP he needed for level four:

_Level 4:_

403/420

Naofumi was shocked to see that he didn't need as much EXP as he feared he would have needed. So seeing this, he informed the young slave with him, "I only need another seventeen experience points to become level four."

"Oh my! I have to admit this is a surprise," admitted Crusch, "normally it would take someone a few days to get to level two maybe three if they were lucky. So seeing how we don't normally appear around here, for whatever reason that they appeared here for, these demons were a great help to you. Not only were you able to level up from one battle, but even I grew a level from them. Normally it would have taken us a few hours to a whole day of hunting the right monsters to level up, as the monsters around here normally giving no more than 1 EXP to 20 EXP or so if you are lucky. So it normally takes a while for people to level up around the Castle Town."

Naofumi had to admit that it was understandable in some ways, with people living in the area they couldn't keep the monsters becoming too strong or they could hurt a lot of people. So they used adventurers to keep monsters from becoming too strong, which meant that the monsters wouldn't give too much EXP. Normally that wouldn't be too bad, as it would give adventurers gain experience in fighting and gain a few levels overtime before they had to face something much stronger. But for Naofumi he wasn't too happy about it, as he had low attack points and only Crusch to help him, so for him, it felt it would be harder than he wanted to level up.

"I am upset we weren't able to get any material from the demons," Crusch said sadly, "not only might you have gained a new shield or two, but my master might have used some of the cores even their skins and bones. By the time we get back there, the guards most likely would have gotten to them and give it to the other blacksmiths in town."

"Damn it!" cursed Naofumi, he couldn't believe it, because he had problems with the other heroes, he walked away from some possible high levelled shields all because he wanted to get away from one of the damn heroes that give him problems. Not only that, but thanks to his actions, he lost material that the people who were helping him could use. Whilst he might not like this world nor care what happens to it as long as he could get home, he did care about his debt and he had one with Crusch and her master, seeing how they were helping him when no other would.

So with a deep sigh, he said, "I'm sorry about that, but I just couldn't be around him for too long, not only with the way he spoke back there but with how he and the other heroes treated me, I wanted nothing to do with them unless I'm forced to."

"I understand My Lord," said Crusch, "but next time would it be possible to harvest the monsters/demons before we leave should we come across the heroes again?"

"If it's Itsuki, as long as he doesn't say or do something that pisses me off, I'll try." Naofumi informed the young lizardwoman, "But if it's the other two heroes, especially if the bitch of the First Princess, I can't promise you anything, just thinking about them makes my blood boil."

"I understand My Lord, I know why you have a problem with them, but you cannot let that problem hinder your growth." Crusch tried to make the Shield Hero see sense, "Yes we might have walked away from some good materials back there, but it's not a big deal given that the knights should give some of those materials back to my master, most likely not the good parts given that we're helping you but will still get some. However though, the real treasures are from the Wave Bosses and the minions that are spawned with him, you are the Shield Hero you will be able to protect all of those around you.

"But it's going to be up to the others to beat the Waves, if you let your anger for the other Heroes get hold of you like it did back there, then you would be making yourself weaker for no good reason. As if you can't stand being around the other heroes, you'll be missing out on all the great materials for new shields whilst the others well get the better weapons. You would be lucky to get the leftover parts and that might not even be the good stuff, forget about new shields, but also better armour or/and new weapons for your companions should you get any."

Naofumi knew that Crusch was right, that if he constantly avoided the heroes, he wouldn't get any of the good material from the Waves and would be making himself weaker in the long run as they made themselves stronger. But the problem was that out of the four people he was trying to avoid, he didn't want to deal with three of them. Not after everything that has transpired since he got here, he wasn't ready to deal with them, if it meant that he might not get great shields from the Waves so be it. He'll look for other ways to get stronger items and powers, he just wasn't willing to deal with them right now. Yeah, he knew he was being foolish, but the anger and hate that he had, he didn't know if he could be around them.

"Listen, I know you are right, I shouldn't constantly avoided the heroes," admitted the Shield Hero, "however, with everything that at least two of the so-called heroes put me though, I don't know if I can deal with them so soon. So once again, I'll try with the Bow Hero, but no promises with the rest of them." Naofumi told her firmly, not wanting anything to do with them.

Crusch realized that she wasn't going to get anywhere with the Shield Hero on this subject at this time, so she decided to put things back on track: helping her Lord to get stronger. To help him get stronger fast, she would have to take him somewhere where the monsters had high levels. But the monster around Castle Town and the nearby forest, the max levels were around five to ten, but unlike demons and a few rare monsters, they don't give out more than 20 EXP. Whilst that would be fine normally, she wanted to make her Lord as strong if not stronger than the past Shield Hero.

So to do that, she had to take him elsewhere to level up, in fact, she knew a few places to go, but to go there they had to take the Dragon's Gate to get there. As it would take a few days to get there otherwise instead of a few moments. So with an idea in mind, Crusch said, "My Lord, follow me, I'll take you somewhere where I sometimes train and get materials."

"Thanks, but are you sure that it'll be safe for me to be there?" asked Naofumi, realizing that wherever Crusch was taking him was dangerous for someone who was low level like him.

"As long as you stay out of the fighting, you should be fine." explained the demi-human, "But this will help you to level up faster."

Naofumi was glad to hear this, he wanted to get stronger any be it getting new shields or levelling up and using his skill points to do so. So with a small smile, he said, "Lead the way Crusch."

With that Crusch lead Naofumi to a small field near Castel Town, in this field, there was a _**huge **_archway that reminded Naofumi of a picture of Arc de Triomphe in a book he once read, but way, at least four times bigger. But unlike the Arc de Triomphe, the archway had a stone dragon's head on top of the archway, with claws on either side of the head. There was a stone stairway leading to the entrance of the archway, which had a stone guardian on either side of the entrance. The guardians were of what Naofumi looked like Warrior Makers, with armour and huge axes in each hand. As for the entrance, there was a swelling reddish portal in the centre of it.

There were many people here, mainly people with caravans either normal or merchant ones, there were also some mounts only here too. Wondering what was going on here, Naofumi asked, "What's going on here, what's that archway about?"

"This is the Dragon's Gate, it's a portal to allow you to get to other kingdoms and islands with ease instead of taking a long caravan or boat travel to where you want to go to." Crusch informed the Shield Hero.

Naofumi was looking at all the different kinds of mounts there were in the area, he was amazed, there were many beasts in the area, huge and small. There were the basic big yellow birds that he saw around, there were lizard-like, turtle-like, scorpion-like and bug-like creatures, he could swear he even saw a crab-like mount. In fact, one of the most noticeable creatures there was a huge snail. The snail had a shell that had a door and windows, it looked like it was like a house that could hold at least five people. Naofumi couldn't think that such creatures existed, but here they were, some leaving whilst others were waiting. Not in Naofumi wildest dreams did the Shield Hero would ever believe he would see such a sight.

As they walked up to the Dragon's Gate, Crusch walked up to one of the guards and told them as she handed a strange-looking key, "I would like the Dragon's Gate to be opened to Bleakrock for myself and my companion." here she pointed to Naofumi as she left out who he was, as she was worried that the guards wouldn't allow him through if they knew who he really was. She also hoped that they didn't know what the Shield Hero looked like and if they did, with them being so busy, they wouldn't notice until it was too late.

But luck wasn't with her though, as whilst the guard give Crusch a look of contempt, it was nothing compared to the look the guard was giving Naofumi. The young hero believed that he would be dead a hundred times over, it would seem that whilst the guard might not like demi-humans, he hated the Shield Hero even more.

"Whilst you might have the rights to use the Dragon's Gate because of you being Ulthane's assistant, but the Shield _Hero_, hasn't got the right to do use the Gate." the guard informed them darkly, "The king forbid the Shield Hero from using the Dragon Gate."

Naofumi once again wanted to blow his top at this, the damn king and his bitch of a daughter has once again screwed him over, making it hard to do anything. But before he could go on one, Crusch put her hand onto his shoulder and pulled him away.

As they left the area, Crusch sighed as she said, "Forgive me, My Lord, I had hoped that we could have left before anyone could realize who you are. As I wanted to level you up as much as possible so that I could spend the rest of the week training you."

"Don't blame yourself over this, it wasn't your fault." Naofumi told her kindly, before his voice went a bit darker, "Blame lays on the king and his damn daughter and the sheep of this kingdom, if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be in this place now."

Crusch could see Naofumi's point and sighed sadly that the young man was beginning to see the people as sheep, not that she could blame him. She too thought that most of the kingdom's people were sheep, treating her race and other non-humans as third-class to second-class citizens, all because the kingdoms feared them for no reason.

For a long time until recent years, Melromarc treated all non-humans, third-class citizens. Its thanks to the new queen that they were treated as second-class, but it is just barely done though. As because the kingdom is so big, the queen can only do so much and things slip by and non-humans are still being treated badly.

It's the same with a few kingdoms, it's only two or three kingdoms that treat non-humans somewhat fairly. But whilst they were treated fairly, there's just some fear here and there in this kingdom, worried what the non-humans might do. It's because of this fear that they were treated like second-class citizens instead of third-class, to try and keep the peace so no fights would break out. But if possible, if they could get away with it, people would treat them like dirt, to show the non-humans their place.

Either way, it was Crusch's dream that one day everyone would be treated the same, she hoped that a Shield Hero would do this. Like the last Shield Hero helped the demi-humans get their own kingdoms. Part of her hoped that this Shield Hero would be the one to do this, but she feared that with the way the king and his daughter have been treating him, along with the people/sheep believing their word about the rape and so treating her Lord like shit, the new Shield Hero would only do the bare minimum to help, just enough so that he could get by.

Crusch knew that there was very little she could do to change his mind, all she could do was to show that not everyone was out to get him. To show him that other than her and her master, there were people out there worth protecting and helping. She just hoped it was enough.

Her thoughts were broken as after taking a few deep breaths, Naofumi said, "This might be for the best anyway."

"How so My Lord?" Crusch asked a bit confused.

"If I left for this island of yours, I might have missed out on some decent shields here." explained Naofumi, "Whilst I might hate that I'll be levelling slower than the other heroes, I can get many more new shields then them. As I suspect that their main goals would be finding high-grade material and to level up quickly as possible, by going after the much more powerful creatures to get much more powerful weapons and ignoring the weaker ones. Not realizing that the smaller ones are just as good, because you can stack them up. Sure it might take longer, but at the end of the day, as long as you get enough of them sooner or later they're going to make a difference. Especially given that sooner or later I'm going to get those materials too. It's better that I train and keep on collecting new shields, as I don't know how to fight and I'm weaker than them."

Crusch realized that her Lord was right, what made her want to hit herself. Because she wanted so badly to level up Shield Hero so he could catch up with the other Heroes, along with some strong and powerful shields, she completely forgot what her master told her when she first started out as a blacksmith. That as a blacksmith, they should take things slow and easy and not to rush ahead or her work would suffer in the end, not only that, as long as they weren't too bad, a master blacksmith can use rubbish materials to create decent weapons and armour. Sure not the best, but for starter armour, they would do. So whilst best materials are often the best option, you shouldn't rule out some of the useless materials in the hands of a master blacksmith, as not only could they make decent things out of it, with cores and stone, the second-best armour and weapons can go far.

Because of things and remembering that she wasn't dealing with a normal adventurer who only needs to get training and the best equipment and gear with higher levels to make them strong, she was dealing with a Cardinal Hero. With Cardinal Hero, they had a different set of rules, rules that she could only dream of.

"You're right My Lord, I'm completely sorry that I almost did a horrible mistake," she said with a bow, "I was treating you like a normal adventurer and not like the Cardinal Hero that you are. Where your rules of becoming stronger is different to a normal adventurer who only needs some training and levelling up with the best items shops can sell them. You need monsters and other materials that you can absorb into your shield." she said with a smile, "Now before we do anything, I think we should get you to level 4 and try and get you to level 5 today to unlock some of your shields. As I have a few ideas I would like to try out with your Rope Shield, as that could be the most useful skill you might have and well be handy in a fight."

"If you think that's for the best I'm all for it." said Naofumi, wanting to see what Crusch what has planned.

"Now let's go to an Imp Camp that I know of," Crusch told Naofumi, "these can give us 20 EXP with ease, but normally people don't face them until they are level 8 to 10, as they are around level 10 and have some decent defence and attack so need to be a higher levels before facing the imps. But with me helping you, as long as there are some in the camps, we should be able to level you up to level 5 in a few hours."

So with that Naofumi followed Crusch to a few camps that she knew that had Imps in, but none of the camps had any Imps. Along the way to the first camp, Naofumi levelled up his Bonus Skill Points which was already at Level 2 which gave him an extra five skill points to use. So with ten Skill Points to play with, as he planned to, he placed six Skill Points into Bonus Skill Points. Naofumi was pleased to see that in doing so, he gained five extra Skill Points instead of four as he thought he would get. This left him with four spare points to play with, which he wasn't sure where to place them yet, so he decided to wait until he levelled up again. Now to get the Bonus Skill Points to Level 4, he needed to have nine skill points.

If Naofumi was honest with himself, he was going to wait to use the points until he levelled up again seeing how he only had 17 EXP to go for the next level up. That was until he realized that he would be losing out on extra Skill Points. Sure he only gained five extra Skill Points, but as he thought about it, with this method of his to get stronger, every Skill Point counts if he wants to get stronger, more so if he wanted to level up his shields with Skill Points too. So for now, it was best to get as much Skill Points that he can get before using the leftover Skill Points on something more useful.

Naofumi hoped that when he levelled up again, he would get some Attribute Points, as he would need it to add another point into Intelligence so he can get more Skill Points. As if he didn't, he would have to work out where else to place the other Skill Points.

Either way, during the search for the Imps, they came across a few small groups of Balloon Monsters, which give them 16 EXP, leaving him one point away from levelling up. But after three hours of searching for the imps, they found a small group of ten imps that were at level 8.

These Imps were about three-foot tall creatures with a tall, a pair of wings and pointed ears, another noticeable thing about the imps was that they had two horns and they had sharp claw-like hands and toes. But that wasn't the most noticeable thing about the imps, not the most noticeable thing about them was that they had a gem in the centre of their head. Crusch informed him that this was a core, something that other than being used to make armour and weapons stronger, give Alchemist powers, unlike anything other people could dream of.

It all depended on how the blacksmith or Alchemist used them. As to use the cores, the blacksmiths would have to play around them to fit into the armour and weapons, so the results can differ from each item. As for the Alchemist, it all depends on what they want the core for. They might want it to summon an Imp to do their bidding, or they might want to use the core to use the imp's powers for their own or boost theirs or their companion's stats.

This got Naofumi thinking, he didn't realize that there was so much work in using the cores. But that wasn't going to stop him from trying, as being an Alchemist would be the only way for him to be able to fight.

Anyway, Naofumi was shocked at how hard they were to defeat, they were fast, dodging the attacks with somewhat ease. Crusch explained whilst these were weak, it didn't mean that they were easy to defeat, as they were fast and only those who trained to fight monsters with such speed could defeat them. The lizardwoman also told the Shield Hero that the speed was their secondary defence, for those who were high levels.

But for those who are the same level as them or slightly lower or higher than them, whilst their physical attack was weak, their fire magic was great. Not only that but their defence too, making it as if they were near impossible for low-level adventurers to defeat. Because of this, adventurers leave these Imps alone unless they are high level and good with speed attacks.

But Crusch was able to defeat them with somewhat ease, sure it took a while because of their speed, but she was able to defeat them. In which he gained 200 EXP from their defeat, which allowed him to level up to level 4.

_**LEVELLED UP!**_

_+10 Health!_

_+10 Defence!_

_+5 Magic Attack!_

_+5 Magical Defence!_

_+20 Stamina!_

_+15 Skill Points! _

_+4 Attribute Points!_

When Naofumi levelled up this time, he was shocked to see that his stamina had gone up. Up 'till now he hadn't really thought about it, as he never felt it go down. Then again, apart from rushing in to defend Crusch in the last fight, he hadn't done anything to make his stamina to go down, not only that but he ate and drank some of the food that Crusch give him now and then.

He had no idea how the food here worked, would it be like in-game that he played that food and drink recover mana, health and stamina. He had tried to use his _**Appraisal Shield **_to find it out, but for some reason, his shield wouldn't appraise the food nor anything that wasn't a monster, demon or demi-human/human. It was like he was blocked to appraise such things, not only that, but he couldn't absorb any of the food that he tried to give his book, thinking that he had to do such thing first before he could appraise food. So he couldn't be sure about it.

But whatever the case was, he got some more stamina which would be useful for when he needed it, but not only that, but he also had some more Attribute Points that he could use, something that he had hoped would happen. So placing two Attribute Points into Intelligence, he levelled Bonus Skill Points, which would now give him 23 Skill Points next he levelled up next. To level this skill up again, he would now need twelve Skill Points to do so

With 2 Attribute Points and 10 Skill Points to play with, he placed another two points into Bonus Attribute Points so that he would have 5 Bonus Attribute Points whenever he gets some next. As for the reminding points, seeing how he hadn't yet figured out where he wanted to spend them other than Intelligence Bonus Skill Points to get more Skill Points, he had no idea what skills and attributes to level up. It was something he knew he would have to work out soon, but he also knew that he would need to use the Skill Points for his shields too. So he knew he had to think carefully and why he wants so many Skill Points so soon. All he knew that he had to figure it out soon, otherwise he could remain weak.

But as he thought about it, he'll wait until he got to level five, as that's when Crusch was planning to train him. So until he knew what the training plan was and how it would affect his Strengthening Method, it was best to wait before deciding what to do with his points.

After dealing with his points and seeing that he would need 720 points to level up next and he already got 199 so far, Naofumi wanted to hunt for some more Imps or whatever else that would give him high EXP. But Crusch reminded that her master had a few jobs for her to do in the afternoon, and because they had to hunt for the Imps, they were already running a bit late as it was. So they had to return to town.

Naofumi wasn't happy about it, but seeing how Crusch had other commitments, he knew he had no other options to return to turn. But he was happy to see that he had levelled up two times that day, so it wasn't too much of a bad day, it would give him time to think about what he could do with his reminding points. Not only that, but Crusch suggested that he should look into some guilds, as that could be a way for him to earn some coins.

He knew well enough what Guilds were about and normally would be happy to try and join one, but after everything that has happened, he wasn't all that hopeful of joining one. As by now they would have heard about the lies about him and would be more than happy to keep him away from them. Naofumi cursed the bitch and her father, as they ruined the one thing he wanted to try since he learned about how this world worked, to join a real-life Guild. He had so much fun helping in the ones that he was back in his world, he wanted to see what a real-life Guild would be like.

But Crusch persuaded Naofumi to join, as she believed that not all guilds would be so hard on him, as there were a few shady characters in each guild. So it is possible that at least one guild would allow him to join him. Naofumi wasn't all that convinced, he knew that it wasn't all that simple. But yet, he had a little hope left in his heart though, that not everyone in this kingdom were total assholes like the ones he faced so far. So he was willing to give it a try, at the very least for a way to get coins for the future.

So once gathering the material that they could from the Imps, they returned back to Castle Town.

_**To Be Continued!**_

_**Author's Note:**_ Here ends another chapter, I hope that you have enjoyed the story and if you did, I hope you leave your thoughts about this chapter. Now I know that I said I would be doing an Omake of the Dragon Overlord next, but life happened. First once again my laptop had to be sent back into the shops to be sorted, whilst it was in the shops, I got an idea for this chapter and I had to write it out before I forget it.

Once I started this chapter, any and all thoughts about anything else left me and I couldn't think about anything else but this. Another problem was writer's block, I knew what I wanted to write, but I just couldn't get the words out, not only that, but the mood to write kept coming and going and it took me over a month to write this chapter. In fact, I had more here, but it was getting over 15k words, so I ended it here. The plan was to finish the chapter with Naofumi meeting a certain Slave Trader, but I thought it was better to end it here.

Now I need your help, with me giving Itsuki having the Angel Core, what Transformation Cores do you think the Sword and Spear Hero should have? I was hoping something different other than an Angel Core, as that would be Itsuki and his group thing. My friend Raven thought that Renka could get a Dragon Core whilst Motoyasu, as a joke or I think it was, Motoyasu could get the Succubus Core. But I would like your thoughts about this, please. I might not have Motoyasu have a core, as I can't think of one that could fit him, so any thoughts for him would be helpful.

I'm still after your thoughts about the notes from past chapters and shields and OCs ideas, so if you got some time, before leaving a review, please look back at the notes and give me your thoughts. Not only that, but please if possible think about some shield ideas. The main shields that I'm looking for at the moment are ones that can level up by Skill Points and gain new abilities through levelling up the shields.

_**Sneak Pick from Chapter Nine! **_

Deciding it wise to ignore him, Naofumi kept it betray you. As without help, you're unable to level up and get stronger."

Hearing this, Naofumi stopped searching the bodies for now and looked at the older man. There was something strange and annoying about him, he seemed to know more about him than the man let on, but yet, Naofumi had the feeling that this man didn't mean any harm to him, or at least for now.

"I'm not sure what that has anything to do with you." sneered the Shield Hero, standing up and got into a small defence stance, ready if the man tried anything funny.

"What if I could say that I can help you with recruitment so that you might stand a chance against the upcoming Waves?" the strange little man asked the Shield Hero.

"If you're talking about party members, after these guys, I don't think I want any right now." Naofumi sneered at this, not only that, but right now he didn't have the funds nor the desire to hire a greedy capitalist. Someone who might turn their backs on him if he got a better offer.

"Party members? Ahaha, please." scoffed the little man, "Oh no, I'm not offing you party members, no, what I'm offering you is something far more reliable and useful."

"For example?"

The man slid over in the Shield Hero's direction.

"Interested?"

"Don't stand so close, you creep."

"Ahaha. I like your eyes kid. Fine then, I'll tell you."

The gentleman puffed out his chest, looking very important-like, spun his walking stick, and pontificated, "A SLAVE!"


	11. Chapter 10

_**Author's Note: **_ Just want to make a comment about a review that I got from a Guest Reviewer, yes most of the chapters are boring, but that's because they are mainly world-building chapters. But if you read my other works, you would know that I do a lot of world-building before I get to the main work, not only that, but I also use a lot of details to explain things. Especially, when there's new info that I'm adding, like new characters, things that weren't covered in the original story and making this an AU story. And seeing how I've got a new Strengthening Method for Naofumi, there are extra details to add.

The reviewer also said that he didn't like how parrying with an attack with a shield is not some advanced manoeuvre, that even an idiot like Naofumi would know about. The person who is someone who is a LARP, live-action role-playing, informs me that parrying isn't as easy as one thinks and believes that me adding some training was a good idea for someone who hasn't got combat training. Another thing, I'm not really good with battles, in fact, my friend wrote the last one and he too isn't good writing them, but he did his best and done what I wanted.

One last thing before we start the chapter, some are saying that Naofumi is more angst than the original Naofumi - I don't think so. You have to remember something, until this chapter, it has only been a few days since he was summoned to this world and he had been betrayed even more than the original Naofumi, so yes he'll be angst, as more has happened to him and it'll take more than a few days to deal with it. I'm hoping that in the next few chapters, he'll become less angst as time passes by.

Now, onto the story:

_**Chapter Ten… **_

_**Raphtalia!**_

_Kingdom of Melromarc, Castle Town, Tavern, 15th of January 740:_

_Time to the next Wave:_ D16 H17 M45.

It has been over a week since Naofumi entered the world where most things were like a game, but instead of having fun and enjoying what the world had to offer, we find him in a dark corner of a tavern, eating a tasteless lunch. He was in a foul mood, he had dark thoughts about how no one apart for Crusch and Ulthane was the only ones who are on his side. All hope that he had for this world and that someone who would help him was killed off a week ago.

After returning to the town and parted ways with Crusch, he went searching for a guild to join as Crusch suggested. But the problem was none of them wanted anything to do with him, not even so far going to a Thief Guild, seeing how they do shady work, but they didn't want him either. Not only that, but some of the guild members would physically through him out, some even tried to kick and beat him.

When he informed about this to Crusch and Ulthane, it was Ulthane un suggested that this is because the guilds don't want to anger the nobles, which in turn upset the king. Whilst the king didn't have much say in what happens with the guilds, most of their jobs come from the nobles where most were friendly with the king. So Ulthane believed that if the king said something, called in any favours from the nobles that he had to stop giving the guilds jobs which meant lose of work. Something the guilds couldn't afford doing, as they needed the work and feared that they might lose other work too if the citizens stop giving them work out of fear what the king might do.

Because of this and that he heard rumours that people outside of this kingdom heard what he might have done, not only that, but it sounded as they won't happy with him either. It would seem that even if he left the area, things wouldn't be any easier for him than it was here. He had to wonder if there was anything the bitch and her bastard of a father wouldn't do to ruin his life. So because of this, he wasn't sure who to trust. At least he had Crusch and Ulthane.

Naofumi would like nothing more but see this world burn, but that would mean that he would die here and have no way home. Because he had to save this world so that he could go home, he knew that he had to become stronger so he could live and return to his homeworld one day. This lead to what happened during the last week:

The first thing that happened, Crusch give him one of the cores of the Imps that they killed for his shield. The core allowed his shield to become an Imp Shield, which looked like the head of an imp.

_**Imp Shield… **_

_Equipment Bonus: _

+5 Magical Attack (Unmastered)

+5 Magical Defense (Unmastered)

Fire Resistance (small) (Unmastered)

_Special Effect(s): _

Fireball (Effect - Small chance of Burning.)

Seeing what the new shield give him, he was happy to get it, although he wished that one of the skills were to summon some imps. As it would give him spies and someone to help him to fight with, but without that, he had a decent shield which gave him his first magical attack. A spell that he didn't need to learn. Naofumi was grateful for this, as now he had a small way to attack now. It wasn't much, but it was something. But the problem was that it cost him 10 MP to use the Fireball ability, so he could only use it four times before he had to wait to recover his mana.

Because of this, Naofumi decided to put a few Skill Points into Magic Attack and Mana Points. With Magic Attack, he levelled it up twice, the first time was for one point, the second time cost him two Skill Points, in total he gained 10 points into Magic Attack.

After levelling up Magic Attack, he then went to Wisdom to level up Mana Points and Mana Recovery, because he now only had 5 Skill Points left he had to decide where to place them. He put an Attribute Point into Wisdom before he put one point into Mana Points so that he can do another two Fireball attacks, then he levelled Magic Recovery twice for the cost of three Skill Points. In return, the recovery time was cut down by ten seconds. It wasn't as much as Naofumi hoped for, but he saw it better than a kick in the teeth. Naofumi decided to hold off on using his last Skill and Attribute

As he thought about it, to level up his Bonus Skill Points cost more Skill Points than any other of his stat skills. He had to wonder if it was because the system was trying to limit him on how many skill points he could have, it wouldn't surprise him, seeing how this world loved to make his life hard.

Anyway, over the last week, he had gotten to level seven. Naofumi had hoped that he could have levelled up more, but the problem is that he was stuck around Castle Town where the max EXP was twenty. Right now, to get to Level 8, he needed 1440 EXP in which he only had 445 EXP, he needed just under a thousand more EXP before he could level up again. But with low-level monsters around here and only Crusch, who had other jobs to do, who was helping him to level up and train, there was only so much levelling he could do.

Right now, when he levels next, he would have 65 Skill Points to use, but it would cost him 23 points to level the Bonus Skill Points.

When he levelled up, not only did he place his points into Bonus Skill Points as he has been doing, but in other skills too. He also used the six Attribute Points in Intelligence, Wisdom and Agility. He levelled up Agility to level three so that he could level up Accuracy to level three so that his aim with his Fireball would become better. With Wisdom, he levelled it up to level five so that he could have more mana and recover more mana a bit faster. Sure twenty-five seconds off wasn't that much, but from five minutes per one mana regen to four minutes thirty-five seconds, it was better than nothing. And with having more mana, he now could use the Fireball ability nine times before he had to wait for the mana to recover. As for Intelligence, Naofumi levelled it up to level nine as he felt he would be using that a lot more than the other stats right now. Here, apart from levelling up his Bonus Skill Points, he levelled up his Magic Attack so that his Fireballs could do more damage.

When he finished levelling up, he found that he had two skill points left, so he used them to level up Reflect and Shield Bash. He did this so that he could have a small chance to reflect attacks and stun/knockback his enemy. It wasn't much, but he wasn't sure what else to do with the extra points, but in the long run, it would help him when fighting.

Naofumi didn't put all his skill points into his normal stats or in his Bonus Skill Points, he put some into his Rope Shield as well. The reason was because of Crusch, she told him that the five metres of rope that he could make with his shield, wouldn't be enough. As there were many huge beasts out there, so the more rope he could get the better. So he levelled it up to level five, with each level up he got another two metres of rope, so right now he had twelve metres. Normally he would need to use 10 SP to use the _**Rope Shield**_, but at level five, he got a discount in SP, so instead of 10 SP, he only needed 8 SP to use the shield. One strange thing is, to level it up to level six, not only did he need nine skill points, but he needed some sort of hook before he could do so, of course, that requirement was quite easy to fulfil thanks to him being near a blacksmith.

It would seem that not only does it cost more to level up his shields, something Naofumi could understand, but at some point, he was required to get something else before being able to level up a shield. This was something he wasn't expecting, sure in some of the games that he played before there was some sort of requirement before he could level up, like an elemental stone, or some other sort of item. But that was normally only when you were adding a class or evolving your character. It would seem that some of his shields would be able to transform as he levelled them, this would be useful depending on the shields.

Anyway, apart from levelling up, when he wasn't hunting monsters, he was training with Crusch or by himself. With himself, he was doing running and other exercises to get stronger and faster. In fact, by doing this he was able to level his strength four times over the last week without the need of attribute points and with his agility and constitution, he was able to level them up four times, again without attribute points. This was something that he was pleased about, as he wouldn't have to spend too many attribute points than he had to.

Not only was he able to level up his attributes, but he was able to do the same with his skills in his attributes. With the lifting he was doing, he was able to level his might at least once whilst with his speed and leap, he was able to level them up twice. He was able to level up his Stamina twice as well.

As for training with Crusch, she taught him how to redirect a weapon off his shield, so that he could give counter with a punch. This was something he wanted to learn since he saw Crusch do it with the demons. Either way, this wasn't the only thing the lizardwoman taught him, she taught him how to best use the counter from the _**Spiked Iron Shield, **_how to use the _**Imp Shield's **_Fireball ability and the _**Pipe Shield's **_Shield Prison ability and _**the Rope's Shield's **_Air Strike Shield ability, properly and how to throw and catch the _**Freedom Shield **_(one of the shields that he copied on his second day in this world.)

_**Freedom Shield.**_

_Equipment Bonus:_

Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Magical Defence: 5 (Unmastered)

Defence: 5 (Unmastered)

_Special Bonus:_

Shield Boomerang

Chance of Stun (small)

Chance of Knockback (small)

Naofumi was happily surprised to see that this was his first shield that gave him attribute points, not only that, but a way to use the shield offensively - sort of. Sure it didn't have any attack points, but it could stun or knock them back, even distract them too. But as he found out whilst fighting a dire wolf, if he put enough force into slamming the shield into their face, he could know the wolf out.

The reason that he was fighting them was that they were dealing with a few packs that were creating problems around town, normally they would be captured and trained to become mounts. But these packs were getting into farms and killing the life stock, so as a favour to one of the farmers who Crusch's master dealt with. Out of it though he got a new shield series, the Wolf Series. The first of this series was called the Wolf Shield:

_**Wolf Shield.**_

_Equipment Bonus:_

Predator Instinct (Unmastered)

Night Vision (small) (Unmastered)

Enhanced Body (small) (Unmastered)

Naofumi had to thank this shield, as not only did his senses began to become a bit better, but some of his attributes and skills within them got better without the need of altering the attributes and skills. He also found himself a bit more aggressive in his fights and his anger was able to surface easier and it took more to control it. After a week, whilst he was able to master all his other shield's Equipment Bonuses, there was one bonus that he was unable to master, the Predator Instinct. For some unknown reason, he wasn't able to master this one skill and so for him to use its powers, he had to equip the shield.

Naofumi hoped that one day he'll find a way to master Predator Instinct, so that he could use other shields with its power he could use along with Predator Instinct, like Fireball. With Predator Instinct, his senses were sharper than normal and he had slightly better accuracy, if he could master Predator Instinct, his Fireballs and any other magic attacks he might learn would hit their target much better.

Either way, Crusch wouldn't really allow Naofumi to leave the area of Castle Town to train, whilst the monsters won't that powerful, she wanted to make sure that the Shield Hero could fully defend himself first. One of the things that she had him do was learn about his surroundings, to be aware of what is going on around him. So when not levelling up or doing some other training exercise, she blindfolded him and began to hit him until he could sense her attacks and dodge them.

His training was mainly in defence seeing how he didn't have much in ways of attack points. Because of this, his Defence Attribute got to level six and he levelled up his Constitution and Wisdom twice. As for his skills, his Physical Defence, Magical Defence and Evading went up three levels, whilst his Accuracy, Reflect, Shield Bash and Magic Attack level up twice, as his Mana Points and Might went up only once.

Naofumi had to admit the training helped, as he believed that he was better off because of it. The only thing he had problems with, not problems as such, but questioned, was how his skills and attributes got levelled up. As some seemed to level up easier than others. But as he thought about it though, he realized it was the same in some of the game, as far as he knew, the system levelled up different and only the makers really knew how it worked.

Either way, the training helped him get better with using the shield and kept his mind off things he didn't want to think about. Not only that, but it was thanks to his training that he found out what the ability Body Modification (small) from his _**Tantric Shield **_did, during his first training session, he was having a bath where he discovered that his dick was bigger than it used to be. He was shocked that the shield could do such a thing to his body. He had to wonder what else it might be able to if he got different shields which had the same ability, he was excited and worried, as all he knew one day his shield could turn him into some sort of ugly monster or something. He knew there wasn't much he could do about it, but he hoped nothing like that would happen to him.

Other than training and levelling up, he was able to create a few new shields, the first was the _**Fish Shield **_that helped him better at fishing. He got this shield when he was teaching himself to fish seeing how he knew he would be leaving this town soon so that he could get stronger. He also got the _**Small Medicine Shield**_, _**Small Poison Shield**_, _**Energy Shield **_and the _**Potential Energy Shield**_, he got these shields when he was trying to create potions.

He knew that when he was out there, he might not be near any shops to buy medicine or it could be too costly to do so. In which case Naofumi realized he should learn how to make his own, he might even be able to sell some too if he was lucky. Either way, all these shields were connected to his _**Alchemy Shield**_. The Small Medicine Shield, allowed him to make any potions he had better, be it bought or homemade ones. The _**Small Poison Shield **_gave him a small resistance to poison, whilst his _**Energy Shield **_gave him a small incase in SP, whilst the last shield the _**Potential Energy Shield**_, allowed him to slightly use less stamina, which allowed him to do slightly more work.

Whilst Naofumi believed he was more or less ready to leave the town, the main problem was money. He wasn't able to sell or but much, as stores wouldn't sell and buy anything from him and those who would, they would try and undercut him in one way or another. Because of this, Ulthane had Crusch buy or sell things for Naofumi. Whilst a normal demi-human would have a hard time in the town doing such things, a slave demi-human wouldn't have such a hard time.

Sure they would still be looked down upon or sneered at, but because they were buying and selling things for their master, they would be allowed to do so. As most of the slaves belonged to the nobles and the merchants wouldn't want to upset them, so wouldn't undercut them, otherwise, the nobles could make the merchant's life difficult. This started a few days ago and so far he was able to get at least fifty silver coins for his things.

To the present day, Naofumi had the day off from training seeing how Crusch was working with her master on a special order that they had to do, so he could do whatever he wanted to do. To be honest, he didn't know what to do seeing how the town hated him, there was little he could do.

So after some thoughts, Naofumi decided to design his own carriage. He knew that to get around he would need to get his own monster and carriage, the best ones to get was the bird race the Filolial. As they were fast, able to pull heavy things that normally takes a powerful and huge monster to do so and able to swim, not only that but they were able to attack monsters too with their claws.

But there were a few things Naofumi was told to remember about Filolials, first off they were a proud race and grow attachments quite easily. When a Filolial gets older, they'll seek out carriages to pull, they prefer heavier and sturdy carriages with lots of shinies on them. He was told that unless he had no other option, he should never rent a carriage for them, as they see the carriage that they draw as their home where they put their nest in this way they can travel with their belongings and chicks if necessary.

But tamed Filolials can become depressed and upset if they have to pull a carriage that wasn't theirs, it was known that in rare cases unless they are returned to their carriage or get a new carriage should they old one gets destroyed somehow, they could die. Wild Filolials don't seem to have this problem, as they don't grow attached to them, but there were strange rumours going about Wild Filolials stealing carriages. But no one knew if this was true or a story people told for losing their carriage but wouldn't tell the truth for some reason.

Naofumi was also told that Filolials has this strong hatred towards dragons, no one really knew why they have this hatred towards each other, all they knew was that the two don't get along. Last and most important thing he was told to remember about them was that they were Bottomless Pits, they were willing to eat anything that they were given, even their own kind or even eat humans if hungry enough unless they are raised properly and fed with certain foods to fill them up quickly.

So here Naofumi decided to design his very own carriage, something that would be useful to get around in, a carriage that he could live in. As if he was going around the kingdom, he wasn't sure when he would get to a village or town next, not only that, if he did get to one he wasn't sure if the people there would allow him to sleep in their inns. So it was best to create a carriage that was like a small house or something.

He spent most of the morning doing this and by lunchtime, he was getting hungry, but seeing that Crusch and Ulthane were busy and they didn't have any food at the moment, Naofumi decided to go to the nearby tavern. It was one of the few places that would serve him, but at a heavy cost though. But right now he didn't care, he needed something to eat. As he got there, he ordered his food and drink and seat in the dark corner of the place so as not to be disturbed or to be stared at.

As he was finishing his meal, three adventurers came up to where he was sitting, they looked stupid and out to get to him. But before he could say anything though, a slam man with messy brown hair and looked like the leader of these fools said, "Oh Great Shield Hero, I'm so grateful that we were able to find you, we would like to join _your _party."

"Thank your lucky stars." said a fat man with a smirk, as he placed his hand on the Shield Hero's shoulder.

The look in their eyes and the way they were acting remind Naofumi the day that Bitch came into his life, how she began to play him for a fool. It would seem that these guys were trying to do the same, but their problem was that they didn't seem to be as smart as the Bitch, at least she was able to pull it off. Thinking about it just made him angry once again, so he began to take a few deep breaths so as not to lose control.

But to see if they really out to play him or to see if they were just stupid, Naofumi said, "Fine. But first let's go over the employment conditions, as I want to make sure we all know how things are."

"M'kay."

'_Stay calm Naofumi, stay calm.'_ Naofumi told himself, _'If these guys really are out to play you, these guys will follow you everywhere you go. But if they really do want to help you, you don't want to lose any help they are willing to give you.'_

"All right, let's get out of here so we won't get bothered and we can talk about you joining my party." Naofumi told them as they left the tavern, "Now if you join my party, any rewards that we get will be based on your performance. Do you understand?"

"Nah-uh."

'_Jeez, I could punch the crap out of these guys.'_ Naofumi thought to himself, come on, don't they have such a system in this world? Where you get paid on the work that they do or were these guys just that stupid?

"It means that if we are out adventuring and we get some decent amount of loot and we sell it for say 150 silver coins, I will take a percentile of it seeing how I'll be the team leader." Naofumi informed the guys as they got to the alley next to the tavern, which made them really unhappy to hear this, "Which means that I'll get 40% of the profits whilst the rest will be divided up among the rest of you, all depends on your performance. So if you help out all equally, then we'll divide the rest between the four of us. But if one or all of you do fuck all for the day, either one or all of you get nothing and I'll have it all. So at the end of the day, the amount you receive depends on my judgment of the matter and your action."

"What the hell!" the leader cried in outrage, "That means you can just take however much you want, right?"

"Not if you do your part, if you pull your weight you'll get paid. Get it?" Naofumi asked the fools "I'm not going to have people in my party do fuck all whilst I do all the work, everyone in my party have to do their part."

"All right, fine then." grumbled the leader, before he smirked and went on to say, "That's all good. Let's go buy some equipment."

"You buy your own equipment." Naofumi told them flatly, "I don't see why I need to take care of you all that much. I've done that once already and got fucked over for it, I'm not going to be doing that again. You'll need to take care of yourselves, I'm not going to be helping you out with gear and such. You're on your own there."

"Pfft."

This was exactly what Naofumi expected to happen. He betted that even if he did buy them equipment, they would probably just slack off the whole time and they would run off and leave him in a tight spot, where later on they would sell their equipment for a profit. The gall of these dirty men. They were just like her.

"Fine then." the fat man huffed, a bit put off that their plan didn't work, but he wasn't going to leave empty-handed, with that he pulls out a knife and said darkly, "Just give us your money and you won't get hurt."

"Figures you would show your true self, show me that you are like the rest of the people here, scum." Naofumi said darkly, "Just go fuck yourselves, you're not getting a coin from me." And with that Naofumi just walked away, leaving these assholes behind him.

This made the men angry and so the other two pulled out their knives and were about to attack Naofumi, but the fat man was first, which was a mistake. As thanks to his training and suspecting this to happen, Naofumi felt the attack coming, but instead of blocking the attack, he caught the blade between his index and middle fingers.

Naofumi couldn't help but smirk as the three men looked at him in shock and fear, he said, "Do you really think I wasn't expecting you to do this? Not only that, but do you think you low-level bastards could hurt someone who, more than likely, got more defence than you three put together? Just leave me alone scum." Here he pulled the knife from the fat bastard and threw it at their feet and walked away.

But the fools weren't having any of it, they didn't like that they were shown up by the weakest of the Heroes that were summoned to their world, so they did the only thing that came to mind, they attacked the Shield Hero.

Naofumi sighed as he sensed the fools about to attack him again, it would seem that he would have to show them that whilst he can't do any damage to them at the moment, he wasn't a pushover as they thought he was. So using his shield to defend himself of the knives, he countered their moves and punched each of them a few times before they were knocked out.

Naofumi sighed at their unconscious forms, and said darkly, "People like you just keep proving to me that this world has nothing but sheep and scum in this world, I can't wait to leave this damn world." Now Naofumi was about to walk away when an idea came to him, it was thanks to people like them that he couldn't get much coins, so why shouldn't they pay for it in some way.

Over the last week, Naofumi and Ulthane talked about many things, but one of the things they talked about was how the Shield Hero could get some money. The first idea was to become some kind of travelling merchant, selling the potions he made along with anything else. The other was to become a bandit if the kingdom was going to treat him like some sort of criminal than he should become one.

At first, Naofumi was against the idea, as he didn't want to give himself more bad rep than he already had. He wanted to show people that he wasn't like how the damn king and his bitch daughter betrayed him. But after the long week, he had where he was treated worse than scum and now with this, Naofumi was seeing the light on the idea, it wasn't like he could keep on relying on Ulthane and Crusch with help in getting coins, he would have to leave town soon and they won't be there for him. He wasn't sure how being a travelling merchant would work seeing how people hated him, so it only left him with one option, becoming a bandit. Not only that but if people were going to try and use him, other than Ulthane and Crusch, the only ones who truly helped him, he should do the same and use the ones that show him disrespect before they can try and take advantage of him. To do whatever it took to get back home.

With this new mindset, he decided to start with these three guys, so he bent down and searched their bodies to see what they have got.

"I have to say, you dealt with those better than I expected you to." Naofumi heard a man's voice called out to him, he could hear whoever it was clapping at what was done, "Not only that, but you're looting them as they would you if they had half a chance to do so.

As the Shield Hero looked around, he saw a strange small man walking out of the shadows, where he was hiding behind some stacked boxes. The man was wearing a silk hat and coattails. He was a strange gentleman by any measure, absurdly obese and furnished with obese sunglasses. He didn't seem to fit the world, which was much more like the Middle Ages.

So he stuck out dramatically from his surroundings.

Deciding it wise to ignore him, Naofumi kept searching the bodies for loot. Not wanting to deal with anyone else that afternoon. So far he found the men's money bags.

"I know what you want the most, young man," the strange short man informed the Shield Hero, "you need those who you can trust and not betray you. As without help, you're unable to level up and get stronger."

Hearing this, Naofumi stopped searching the bodies for now and looked at the older man. There was something strange and annoying about him, he seemed to know more about him than the man let on, but yet, Naofumi had the feeling that this man didn't mean any harm to him, or at least for now.

"I'm not sure what that has anything to do with you." sneered the Shield Hero, standing up and got into a small defensive stance, ready if the man tried anything funny.

"What if I could say that I can help you with recruitment so that you might stand a chance against the upcoming Waves?" the strange little man asked the Shield Hero.

"If you're talking about party members, after what you saw me do to these guys, I don't think I want any right now." Naofumi sneered at this, not only that, but right now he didn't have the funds nor the desire to hire a greedy capitalist. Someone who might turn their backs on him if he got a better offer.

"Party members? Ahaha, please." scoffed the little man, "Oh no, I'm not offering you party members, no, what I'm offering you is something far more reliable and useful."

"For example?"

The man slid over in the Shield Hero's direction.

"Interested?"

"Don't stand so close, you creep."

"Ahaha. I like your eyes kid. Fine then, I'll tell you."

The gentleman puffed out his chest, looking very important-like, spun his walking stick, and pontificated, "A SLAVE!"

"A slave?"

"Yes, a slave."

Naofumi was shocked, sure he knew about slaves seeing as Crusch was one, but he was informed by Ulthane that slaves were sold by Slave Traders. Slave Traders came in two forms, the first one was from the legal way, where you get slaves from the auction houses, where you would need to be registered otherwise you wouldn't be allowed to get one. The other way was the illegal way, going to the black market to get them. Which Naofumi had no idea how to get, as his reputation was shit, and those in the black market wouldn't even think about helping him.

So he had to wonder one thing, who was this man and why was he willing to help him in getting a slave for? By the feeling that the suspected Slave Trader was giving off, Naofumi believed that the strange man was from the black market, he gave off an eerie aura of mischief and sleaziness but not danger. Naofumi had thought about getting a slave for a bit, but because he had such a bad rep that no one would be willing to sell him one, he gave up on the idea for now.

Because he hesitated, the strange man thought that the Shield Hero wasn't interested, so he went on to explain, "They do not lie, and they do not betray their masters. Slaves are under a powerful curse. If they contradict or betray their masters, they must pay with their very lives."

"I already know this," Naofumi informed the strange man, "I know someone who has a slave."

"I see, interesting," the little man said thoughtfully, as if he was putting new information together, "so how about it? Do you want a slave?"

"I do, but why are you willing to help me?" asked Naofumi, "I bet you know who I am and the rumours surrounding me, so why would you help me if it puts you at risk in losing your business in town?"

"For now, just say I have my reasons." the man said simply, not willing to say more about this, "So do you want a slave or not?"

"If you know who I am, you know what my stats are like, so of course I want one." Naofumi told the man darkly, it wasn't like he had much choice about it all, he needed one to fight for him seeing how he was limited to Fireball magic at the moment, something he knew he couldn't rely on fully. But the idea of someone who couldn't betray you or it could lead to their death was coming more and more applying, at least he knew that he wouldn't be betrayed or used by his 'companion.'

The strange little man smiled as he said, "In that case, right this way, sir."

_**o0OoO0o**_

The strange little man lead the Shield Hero across town until they got to a dark alleyway, where they went down until they came to a dead end. Before Naofumi could ask what was going on, the strange man opened a doorway in the wall in front of them, the doorway had stairs leading down and so once again Naofumi followed the strange man. But this time he pulled up his hood so that no one would know who he was. He did this as he suspected that wherever the man was leading him, it was somewhere full of people. He also changed his shield into the Imp Shield so that he could defend himself.

As they arrived at the end of the stairs, they came to a small entrance like room, with a huge metal door blocking their way in. Naofumi wondered why this was here, when they had the magical boulder at the top. Naofumi suspected this was a second defence, just in case someone unwanted was able to find their way into the place, this was a way to stop them getting any further.

So he watched the strange little man carefully, to see how he was going to get them here, he was hoping to see something amazing, some sort of spell or something. Sadly he was disappointed as the man just knocked on the door and whispered, "Monkey butts!"

Naofumi felt let down, with all the magic and creatures this world seems to have, he was hoping to see something more to enter an underworld base. Either way though, as the strange little man whispered these words, Naofumi immediately heard different locks being unlocked from behind the giant door, by Naofumi's count, he heard about ten different locks being unlocked.

Soon the doors were unlocked and they entered the next room. Naofumi had once again, he had to admit that he wasn't really impressed, seeing how it was a huge room with a door on the other side looking like it was made from the same metal as the last door. But as he looked around more, Naofumi realized that this wasn't the end of their journey. First he saw two huge doors on the side of the room, where he could smell food and hear many different sounds. This was their next part of their journey and this room was just the reception area. It would seem that there was a side room with beds in, people slept here too.

Now as Naofumi looked around the room again, he found himself staring at four of the most biggest and well-armed guards he had seen so far, he had to wonder if they were some sort of humanoid kind of monsters, they had massive blade weapons. He didn't really have much time to stare at this place, as the strange little man just walked by, completely ignoring the guards, until they got to the other side of the room. Here, one of the guards grab the handle to the doors and opened them.

Naofumi could swear that this door must have weighed a ton given how heavy it looked and how slow it opened, even with this muscular man opening them.

What was on the other side shocked Naofumi, he saw wasn't a normal underground cavern, but a cavern with miles among miles of open space. If he had to guess, he would say this place could hold the town and still have some space to spare. It was filled with multiple fluorescent lights Illuminating this underground place. If he had to guess, this was either a banded location or the black market that Ulthane was talking about.

There were tons of weird items, ranging from food stands that cooked all kinds of different varieties of food, to a more forbidden type of food. He also saw some demi-humans hung up on racks, where he saw people using different types of weapons on them for a price. He could tell that this place was not somewhere he would normally want to be without either an escort, or he was at a higher level. He could smell many different odours in the air, but the two what stuck out the most was the scent of sex and blood.

Now as he looked around, he could tell that there were many many different types of stores down here, ranging from ones that were just plain tents, others were built into the wall, even some that were built by the looks of magic. There was a marketplace here too. This place was like an underground city, with roads and buildings. In fact, on the roads he thought he saw what he thought looked like triceratops, whilst the creature had skin, most of it was protected by what looked like dragon scale made of hard rock. These monsters were pulling carriages.

The Slave Trader lead the young Shield Hero to a huge warehouse district, there were many buildings here, but there was a huge road leading to a huge cave entrance going up. It would seem that this was where they got their things in or out, or at least one of the entrances. As if it was him, he would have a few just in case one was found and had to be closed.

Either way, the Slave Trader lead him to one of the biggest warehouses in the area. Whereupon entering the warehouse, Naofumi was immediately met with the sounds and smells he would have expected if there were actually a bunch of animals and people held here. He also heard hissing, snarling, growling, scratching and the scent of death! There was an abundance of cages with thick metal bars, cases top of cages, some empty, some covered, others portraying their content. Countless eyes seemed to be watching his every move.

Naofumi saw many men going about the warehouse, they were muscular and were wearing masks with what looked like some kind of welding goggles. They were bare-chested and wearing grey trousers and black aprons. They were taking care of the slaves, mainly feeding them than anything else. There were a few who were fighting with a monster, trying to put it into a cage, some were moving slaves to one area to another. The place was very busy.

Naofumi couldn't help but feel that the place a bit ominous and frightening, but regardless, he had to push on. He wasn't about to let this place push him away from getting a slave. To be honest, whilst the place had a dark theme to it, for a black-market slave house, he was expecting much worse. Sure the cages won't ideal for them to live in, but they were slaves and he expected the Slave Trader didn't think they needed anything extra other than food and somewhere to sleep. No need for beds, wash area and such, just a floor to sleep on and someone to bring them some food, no sense to spend too much money on them.

Now once in the warehouse, the little man talked to one of the men before he said with a bow, "Now let's start again, my name is Beloukas and I'm a Travelling Slave Trader."

"I'm Naofumi, the Shield Hero or as people better know me, the Shield Demon." Naofumi introduced himself darkly, with a dark look in his eyes. He was giving an aura off to let Beloukas know that he wasn't going to be played a fool.

"Nice to meet you Lord Naofumi." Beloukas said with a smile as if he wasn't even bothered by this, "Now, let me tell you, whilst I deal with demons, angels, humans and monsters, my main focus is on demi-humans. Although, if you want a human slave, it'll cost you." the Slave Trader warned Naofumi, "Whilst I might sell them, human slavery can be very troublesome especially in a human-supremacy country such as Melromarc or countries where humans are treated a bit better. Don't get me wrong, I can get them if that's what you want, but unless they've committed a crime or the country is trying to make certain people disappear, getting a human slave can be hard and costly."

"I don't care what race the slave is, just as long as they are useful." Naofumi told Beloukas.

"I see," said Beloukas, "in that case, please follow me, I might have what you are looking for." And with that the Slave Trader led Naofumi deeper into the warehouse, the smell becoming more nauseating as time passed. Within a few moments, they approached one of the bigger cages, the slave owner lifting the curtains to reveal a Beastman, a Werewolf.

The beast looked _truly frightening_ with glowing red eyes, a muscled body that was covered in thick, dirty fur, and giant claws that grasped tightly at the bars of the cage.

"My personal recommendation, his status is wonderful, the best of the best." Beloukas informed Naofumi, as the Shield Hero focused on the werewolf, simple information was displayed above the creature's head. "He used to fight in the Coliseum, where he never lost a fight. But during one of his training sessions, he damaged his leg though and because it limited what he was able to do, they were going to dispose of him seeing how he injuries would affect his fighting. But instead, I stepped in and bought him, and whilst he can't fight in the Coliseum, doesn't mean he that he isn't as deadly as he was in the arena."

_**Slave Werewolf.**_

_Level:_

75

_Race:_

Beastman

As Naofumi was looking of the stats, he thought to himself, _'Well fuck, this damn beast's level is way over mine, if I'm not careful one bite and I would be done. But I have to admit that a beast like this would allow me to level up quickly.' _As he thought this, the best men tried and reach out to attack him.

The Slave Trader snapped his fingers at this. As he did, a magical circle much like Crusch had appeared on his right arm, while a similar circle implanted into the werewolf's chest began to glow, it wasn't even a second later as the two of them saw the werewolf retracting his arm and whining in pain back in his cage. "I'm awfully sorry about that, whilst he is my beast slave, unless you're his master, he isn't that friendly."

'_Damn it, so he's just a feral beast.' _Naofumi thought darkly. He had no use for a mindless beast, as it would create trouble, trouble that Naofumi wanted to avoid if possible. His name was already mud and if he had a feral beast who would attack anyone without a second thought, well his name would get dragged through the mud even more than it already had been. No, he needed someone that at least somewhat looked human. Someone who he could control with ease and without the fear that they would kill him during his sleep.

Ulthane told him about slaves that were sold for housekeeping, bed warmers, unsavoury activities and even like Crusch, to help run the shops or go out and get things for their masters. Those slaves were most likely owned by wealthy people - the nobles of this land. But that's not what Naofumi wanted, no, he needed a fighter, someone who could fight monsters when he could not.

"Now this Beastman will set you back by at least twenty gold coins." Beloukas informed the Shield Hero.

'_The hell?'_ thought Naofumi, wondering why the man would show him something so expensive when he was new to the world and wouldn't have that amount of coin. But as he thought about it, he realized that this was a ploy. It was like back when he first started economically, his teachers told their students that some merchants would show them their best products first before showing the rest of their products.

"Very clever, showing me something that I can't possibly afford," Naofumi said with a smile, "now that you have shown me your best product, can we get to the products that I actually can afford."

"Oh you sure are a clever one, I would love you as a customer, you just have the very best eyes for this." Beloukas told the Shield Hero, creeping Naofumi out a bit. "Now if you don't mind following me, I'll show you wares more suitable for your… needs."

Naofumi simply ignores that remark as he followed the short man, not wanting to reply to an obvious remark about what happened to him with the bitch Malty. Now the two walked down one of the warehouse aisles, it was lined on both sides with long rows of cages, full of different races of slaves within them. Beloukas lectured Naofumi on slaves, demi-humans, beastmen, monsters, demons and even an angel or two that the Slave Trader was able to get hold of. Every now and then, Beloukas pointed out an odd specimen here and there that he thought Naofumi would like Most of the information he already knew thanks to Ulthane.

Now as they were walking, Beloukas suddenly asked, "So tell me, My Lord, what kind of product are you looking for?"

"A cheap one, nothing more than fifty to sixty silver coins." Naofumi informed the Slave Trader, not wanting to give away how much coins he already had, he had over one hundred and fifty silver coins, but he didn't want to spend that much for a slave.

"We have slaves specialized for battle or for physical labour. Or, if my intuition proves correct…" began Beloukas, but Naofumi interrupted him, "I didn't do it!"

"Heh, heh, heh, yes, well… I'm not concerned one way or the other to be honest, seeing how in my line business I deal with all sorts of people who use their slaves for all sorts of reasons. But which type is your preference?"

"I was informed that I should look into getting a Sex Slave to help with keeping my emotions in check." Naofumi informed Beloukas, who give him a raised eyebrow. Seeing this, Naofumi told him darkly, "… I didn't do it. But because of the damn princess, my emotions have been all over the place and been told that I should get a Sex Slave to help me. But I don't have the money for one at the moment, what I need is a slave that is cheap but not too broken already and that is capable of fighting. I need something that can attack the monsters that I cannot."

"A battle-oriented slave than? Do you have a preferred gender?"

"As long as they are able to fight, I don't really care."

The Slave Trader scratched at his chin. "I know of a few, skills are weak though, but we do have some in stock. Not only that, but some won't be so good for your… personal pleasures. Would that be alright?"

"I don't give a damn about personal pleasures." Naofumi informed the Slave Trader darkly, as he formed a Fireball within his shield as a warning not to push him. "All I care about is that they are able to fight."

"Okay, okay, I get it." Beloukas said with his hand up in defence, showing the Shield Hero that he didn't mean any harm. It looked like that the information that he gained about the Shield Hero was missing a few important parts, like how dangerous he could be if upset. Not that he minded so people, in fact, he liked them like that as they were more fun, but he would have liked to be warned beforehand so that he could prepare and not upset them. He didn't want to end up dead because he said the wrong thing.

"I have to warn you though, these slaves that I have in mind, they haven't got high levels, in fact, I believe a few are level one." the Slave Trader warned Naofumi.

"If they can fight, we'll level up together." Naofumi admitted thoughtfully, "In fact, if I find a slave that's level one, I can have them level up the way that'll be most beneficial for me."

"Good answer... even though you don't trust people." Beloukas admitted, liking the kid even more, as the Shield Hero says the benefits of having a slave as an adventurer.

"It's no different than levelling up my shield, slaves are just tools to be used the same way." Naofumi said, "I can raise them so they won't betray me." While he might not like thinking a person like this, it helped him feel a bit better if he did, as he'll be treating them as a weapon to attack monsters that he could not. If he treated them like a person, he didn't think he could go along with his plans.

"You got me there." said Beloukas, suppressing a giggle. "Anyway, right this way then."

With that, they continued to walk through the warehouse, where eventually the shouts and smells died down before they entered a quieter area of the shop.

... Or so Naofumi thought. Soon the room was filled with the sound of whimpering children.

Naofumi looked around and saw cages filled with children and older demi-humans. They looked miserable. The Slave Trader continued to lead Naofumi through the room until he suddenly came to a stop.

"This is the cheapest slave I can offer you today, sir."

Beloukas informed the Shield Hero as he pointed to a group of three cages, in front of them.

The first had a man inside, though he also had the ears of a rabbit, and one of his arms was twisted in an odd direction. He looked to be somewhere around twenty years old.

He looked like the dictionary definition of a slave.

The next held a girl of around ten. She was unbelievably skinny, and her eyes looked terrified. She was coughing. She also had dog-like ears that were tied up around her head. She appeared to have a large, round tail as well.

The third cage held a lizardman whose eyes darted about the room violently as if he was just looking for someone to kill. He did seem more like a man than a lizard though.

"From the right, they are a rabbit-type with a genetic disorder, a raccoon-type suffering from panic attacks, and a mixed breed, the lizard man." The Slave Trader informed Naofumi.

'_So the last one was a mixed breed.' _thought Naofumi, _'That would explain why he looks more human than a lizard, where Crusch looked more like what I thought a lizard person would look like.'_

"They all seem to have severe issues." Naofumi pointed out.

"These are all I can offer you in your range. If we lower the bar even more then… well…" The slave trader glanced quickly to the back wall. Here Naofumi followed the man's gaze.

You could tell, even from far away, the smell of death. That smell in the air at a funeral, it was strong, and it was coming from that direction. It also smelled like rot. Naofumi felt like he would get sick just looking in the direction.

"How much are we talking and what are their levels?" asked Naofumi.

"From the right, the rabbit is level 5 and he cost twenty-five silver coins," Beloukas explained, "next the raccoon girl, she's level 1 and cost thirty silver coins and last the lizardman, he's level 8 and cost forty silver coins."

If Naofumi hadn't meet Crusch and Ulthane, he would have thought that the prices were fine, but Ulthane informed him that a starting price for a slave is around eighty silver coins fifty minimum if the Slave Trader was trying to get rid of the slave for some reason. So why were these slaves so cheap? Sure they all had problems, but with the way Ulthane explain it, they would be more around fifty silver coins.

Something was off, for a black market Slave Trader, he would have thought that Beloukas would scam him for every coin that he could from him. More so seeing how people have portrayed him, who would he tell if Beloukas did this. Something didn't add up, so before he even thought about getting a slave, he had to find out what was going on. As he feared that if he didn't, it could return to bite him in the ass later on.

"Why are you offering these slaves so cheap?" Naofumi asked suspiciously.

"What do you mean?" Beloukas asked confused, "I'm selling you these slaves so cheap because they all have problems, problems I fear I can't resell them."

"Don't take me as a fool Beloukas," sneered Naofumi, as he resummoned a Fireball, "remember, I know someone who has a slave and he told me that the cheapest slave I would get would be around eighty silver coins, fifty if the Slave Trader was trying to get rid of them for some reason. So why are they so cheap? In fact, why would you come to me in the first place, from what I've been told no one from the black market district would even think about coming to my aid, as they fear the king's wrath and closing this district down. So tell me, what is going on here?" Naofumi wasn't angry, no he was worried he was walking into a trap of some kind and that worried him a lot.

"You're much smarter than I was led to be believed." Beloukas sighed, he wasn't expecting this much of a problem, "To be honest I first came to you as there were those that wanted a Hero, like yourself, as a slave for themselves. For what reason I don't know, but I had originally approached you with that goal in mind, but since then I've had a change of heart."

"Excuse me?" Naofumi asked in shock, "If a Hero could be enslaved, wouldn't the king do so already, he would have me under his control and punish me for my so-called crime."

"Normally no, the king wouldn't be able to enslave a Cardinal Hero, as they're meant to be a protection to stop the enslavement of one being enslaved." explained the Slave Trader.

"Than how would you be able to capture and enslave me?" asked the Shield Hero.

"Do you know why slaves wear collars when we have the Slave Crest?" asked Beloukas.

"Honestly?" Naofumi asked thoughtfully, "I thought they were there to show that the person was a slave, seeing how the Crest would be hidden. Not only that, but it was a way to find them should they escape, get stolen or someone rescue them for whatever reason."

"That's part of the reason for the collars, although the master can make the collar invisible if they wanted, but there's another reason for the collars." the strange little man informed the hero. "You see the collars were designed to enslave demons and angels, as the Slave Crests don't work on them so the collars were designed. But over the years all slaves were meant to wear them, just in case they had some demon or angel in them and so prevent them from being enslaved."

"So does that mean that collars can enslave heroes too?" Naofumi asked in concern, "But if that's the case, why didn't this damn kingdom's king enslave me?"

"Because the normal collars are unable to do so, from what I've been able to find out about the collars, when the Wave appeared hundreds of years, they tried and failed to enslave the heroes by using the collars." explained the Slave Trader.

"So seeing that you were after me to enslave, does that mean you found a way to do so?" asked Naofumi.

"I believe so, but I have no idea if it would work or not." admitted Beloukas, then he gave creepy smile before saying, "Although, not that it matters now seeing that I have a change of heart about enslaving you."

"And why would you have a change of heart about enslaving me?" asked Naofumi, "It would have been a big payday for you if you were able to sell a Cardinal Hero."

"Well, you have all the qualifications of an excellent client. ALL the qualifications: both good and bad."

"What do you mean?"

"I wonder. What DO I mean?"

'_This guy is slippery as an eel. What did he want from me?' _Naofumi wondered to himself. But he doubted he would get a straight answer from the strange little man, so instead he asked, "Hum… but that still doesn't explain why you're trying to sell me these slaves so cheaply?"

"Whilst there are a few interested parties that want to keep you weak, there are others who want to help you." explained the Slave Trader, "They asked me to extend an olive branch and made a deal with me to help you if I can."

"If these people want to help me, why don't they come to me personally?"

"That I can't answer, either because it was part of the deal that we made, or I just don't know why, they have reasons of their own for not coming to you personally." Beloukas told Naofumi, "But regardless of what they wanted, I admit that I'm more interested in you and your eyes they look like the eyes of a villain and someone who knows a good opportunity when he sees it."

"Ooookay." Naofumi said slowly, unsure how to react to that, this man was freaking him out and wasn't sure how to deal with him. But still, he had to wonder who these people who came to Beloukas to get him to help him, whoever they were, they must be powerful if they were able to get Beloukas to go against this damn kingdom's king. Whoever they were, he was somewhat worried as to what they want from him, but at the same time thankful that they got Beloukas to help, seeing how he now able to get a slave.

Now he had to wonder which slave to get, sure he could get them all if he wanted, but he didn't wait to waste all his coins on more than one slave when he hadn't yet found a consent way of getting money. If he wanted a strong fighter, the lizard man was the best option. But the problem was the way demi-human was acting, it looked like he would just kill anyone and didn't look trustworthy enough that he went to attack him. Sure the Slave Crest would stop him from hurting those he didn't want to. But depending on his will power, the lizardman could attack and kill someone before he could order him not to and before the seal could activate.

So that left the rabbit man and the girl, sure he had a genetic disease, but seeing how he was looking into making potions and his Affinity for Healing and Alchemy, he believed that he might be able to heal the rabbit demi-human. As for his useless arm, sure it looked bad, but again with his Affinity with Healing and Alchemy, he might actually be able to fix that too. If he wasn't able to heal his arm, with training, this demi-human could overcome the problem, like those in his world, those with a missing arm or have some kind of problem with it could overcome the problem and be someone with great power.

Whatever the case, both looked miserable… but so did all the other slaves in the room by the looks of things. Naofumi expected that the Slave Trader placed them in here to die, not wanting to spend too much money to heal them. As it might cost more to heal them than to sell them in the long run, in a business sense, it made sense not to heal them. As it would be throwing money away that they couldn't regain, so it was better off letting them die unless someone like him was willing to deal with them and use they own money to treat the slaves.

"Why are they all so quiet?" Naofumi asked the Slave Trader.

"Because they are punished when they become too noisy." Beloukas explained to the young man.

"Makes sense." acknowledge Naofumi, whilst he might not like it, he could see why they would be punished. Being noisy might risk possible owners to leave if they hear screams and such, so it was best to keep the slaves quiet unless were ordered to talk.

Naofumi had to wonder if the Slave Trader was showing him slaves that were well trained or slaves that couldn't be trained? The lizard man looked like he might be good in a fight, but the other ones probably wouldn't be.

"Why's the female so cheap?" asked Naofumi. While she might be skinny and scared, but she looked like a relatively normal little girl. Her face wasn't good or bad, just normal. With a good diet and makeup, Naofumi believed she could become good looking. "For a female, she would be worth more to you."

"That's normally true, but sadly raccoon-types aren't popular with humans." explained the Slave Trader, "Now, if she were a fox-type or even a weasel-type I'd be able to get a good price for her."

"Huh…"

Raccoons were, if you translate it, like tanuki. Even at that, she looked so human you'd think they could get a good price for her. But if raccoons weren't popular, then she probably wouldn't be worth much as a slave.

"You see, raccoon-types are known to be lazy or unmotivated and are prone to have some kind of ailment much easier than other demi-humans." Beloukas informed Naofumi, "For this raccoon-type, she has some sort of cold and she has panic attacks in the night. She's a lot of trouble… I would say most of her problems came from her last Master, from what I have been told, he loves to torture his slaves. I fear that this one might not have much longer left."

"And this is the best you have in stock? Something that's not damaged somehow?" asked Naofumi, a bit confused as to why he hadn't got more to show if he had made a deal to help him. And although he felt a bit sad about the young girl, he didn't really care right now. All he wanted was something to help him to level up.

"You really hit where it hurts."

"Well you did say you made a deal with a few people, so I thought you would have a few more slaves for me to look at. Slaves that aren't damaged at all." Naofumi explained to the man.

"Well you got me there," Beloukas admitted to the hero, laughed as he found himself getting caught in one of his schemes, "but the thing is these are the last of the slaves that I'm trying to get rid of. As if I don't sell them soon, I don't think I would be able to and I would be losing out on what I bought for them. So I was hoping that you would want one of them before I show the others to you."

Naofumi knew this trick all too well, it was the same back in his world, selling of any of the old stock anyway possible before selling you the new stock. As if they didn't, they would lose out on the money that they used to buy what they did. So Naofumi decided he would at least give her a once over to see what she was like. Sure with her low level she might be hard to train her in time for the next Wave. If he had more time he might have picked her.

But as Naofumi was debating if he should buy her or not, or go for one of the higher level slaves, he caught the eye of the raccoon-girl. Than something awakened in him, something darker than anything he felt before. Whilst he was with Crusch he never felt anything, maybe because she belonged to another person, but now though something dark had awakened.

This thing was a woman, the same gender as that one that betrayed Naofumi. He looked into her scared eyes and immediately thought that he wanted to control her. He thought that if he could just pretend that he could turn Myne into a slave, he could make her pay for everything that he had done to her. And if she died somehow, it might make him feel better.

"I'd like to take a closer look at the raccoon-girl please."

"Certainly." Beloukas opened the cage.

The slave trader produced a key and opened her cage. As the young girl stepped out of the cage, the Slave Trader placed a collar around her neck. She let out a yelp.

Naofumi just looked at her, quivering in fear, where he felt a wave of satisfaction wash over him. He began to imagine that she was the bitch that began his hellish life in this world, quivering in fear, just like this and as much as he hated to admit it, it made him feel great.

Upon seeing the girl who now bowing at him in fear, Naofumi approached carefully. Upon a closer look at her ears and tail, Naofumi thought that they looked more like tanuki than raccoon to him. Although her eyes might reminded him of the bitch, there was something familiar about her, something deep within him telling him that he should know who she was. He felt some irritation as he tried to remember where he knew her from and why he felt she was important to him. He wasn't sure, with most of his memories were still messed up from being summoned here, but he believed that he had dreamt about her before and drew her. This made Naofumi even more pissed at the bitch princess, as if she didn't steal his things, he could look at the picture to try and find out why this raccoon-girl was so familiar.

But as he looked at the fearful girl, he remembered what Ulthane told him about demi-humans, how most of them saw him as some kind of god. So if he treated her somewhat nicely, he might be able to mould her into the perfect weapon and make her do what he needed. Maybe if he was lucky, get her to help him get his vengeance against bitch and her father and anyone else who dares to cross him. As he once heard before somewhere, a well-treated slave will do whatever their master wants from them.

"Hey," Naofumi said, keeling a little away from her, remaining a safe distance away, hoping to show that he wasn't going to hurt her.

Slowly, she lifted her head, the chains around her throat and hands rattling as she moved, and aimed her red, lifeless eyes at him. They were a shade lighter than the bitch's hair, a little pink. This made him want to hurt her, having this kind of remind of what the bitch did to him. This made him more determined to use her. She coughed and shrank back, looking at her hands again.

"As you can see -" began the Slave Trader, but Naofumi silenced the Slave Trader with a hand gesture. He slowly reached out with his right arm toward the girl, putting the Shield in her field of view. When he was sure that she'd spotted it, he asked gently, "Do you know what this is?"

Her eyes flicked briefly toward his face, then fixated on the Shield again.

"It's the Legendary Shield," Naofumi said gently. "I'm the Shield Hero. Do you know what that means?"

She coughed and gave a shaky, barely discernible nod. Her body shifted a little and she looked like wanted to do something but was too afraid.

"You can touch it. It's alright."

With tentative, shaky, small fingers she reached out toward the Shield. Right before she touched it, she looked toward Naofumi with uncertainty, and he tried to put the most encouraging smile he could muster, successfully urging her to continue.

"Y-You're t-the Shield… Hero. are-aren't you?" she said in a frail voice in-between coughs, both hands on the Shield. When she looked up, there was a sense of awe in her still fearful eyes.

"In a sense, yes, I'm the Shield Hero." He smiled at her warmly, "And if you want it, I'm here to get you out of this place if that's what you want."

As an answer, she abruptly threw herself at him, and Naofumi readily engulfed her with his arms. She was terribly thin against him, trembling and coughing.

"It really… is the… Shield Hero," she mumbled into his chest while Naofumi ran a gentle hand through her hair. She coughed. "I… always knew you'd… save me."

"Yes, you're safe now." he comforted the young girl, "But I should warn you though, if you come with me, you'll do things that you might not like. As whilst I'm the summoned Cardinal Hero to defeat the Waves of Catastrophe, it doesn't mean I'll be the hero you might want me to be." He was warning the young girl this now, as he didn't want a slave that would hesitate in the middle of something that could lead to his death. It was better for her to find out now, so that if she wasn't willing to do whatever was needed, he would find someone who would.

"Wh-what do… you mean… Shield Hero?" asked a concerned and worried raccoon-girl.

"Whilst I'll defeat the Waves of Catastrophe seeing how they are connected to my survival in this world," Naofumi informed the young girl, "until the next Wave appears, I'll do whatever I have to, to survive in this world. Be it good or bad."

"Wh-why would… y-you do… su-such things?" the raccoon-girl asked as she coughed.

"Just say that this kingdom has deemed me as a criminal and made it hard for me to get things done." explained the Shield Hero, "So it means that I'm forced to do things that I wouldn't normally do. So if you're willing to do the same, to help to protect me and this world, I'm willing to take you from here. But know this though, I'm willing to help and protect anyway possible, but that's as long as you do whatever it takes too. Be warned, if you don't pull your weight, slow me down or get in the way to what is needed to be done, I won't hesitate to sell you back to this Slave Trader and buy someone who'll be able to do what you can't."

The young slave girl was shocked at what she just heard, that her ideal and one she and the other demi-humans look up to the most would do whatever it took to survive, be it good or bad, because this kingdom branded him as a criminal for some reason. She couldn't believe it. Her parents told her stories of the Shield Hero, he was someone who would protect and help anyone that he could, he wouldn't hurt anyone unless he had to and only to protect others. So for this new Shield Hero to branded a criminal, she wouldn't believe it. It must be this kingdom's way to ruin the name of the Shield Hero, seeing how from what she heard, they don't trust Shield Hero and hated him for some reason. For him to do bad things, he must have no other option but to do so and become a real criminal.

Part of her wondered if she could really help him, to be at his side and do what is needed. She was taught to be a good girl and do what she was told. But helping her Hero, it would mean becoming a bad girl and she wasn't sure if she could do that. But at the same time though, she too knew she had no other option. As if she stayed at this Slave Wearhouse, she would die here soon. So she knew that to survive, she too had to do whatever it took to do so, if it meant becoming a bad girl or using her skills that she gained from her second Master, she would do so.

In fact, there was a warm feeling inside her thinking about using the skills she gained from her second Master, she was excited at the idea of using them on her new Master. Especially if it meant that he would keep her around if she couldn't become the bad girl he needed her to be. And if she was honest with herself, she wanted to use these skills for a long time, but never been able to use them. Maybe now she would be able to.

Finally deciding what to do, she said, "I understand Shield Hero, please make me your slave, mould me into what you need of me."

"Good girl, in that case, you're safe now." Naofumi comforted the young slave girl as he came to realize that she must have had it rough for her to agree so easily, if it only took her a few minutes to agree to be his and telling him that he could mould her as he liked. Having a look at her again and seeing how skinny she was, he knew that she hadn't eaten a good meal in a long time, so with a warm smile he went on to say, "Wanna get out of here and get something to eat? I bet you're hungry."

She withdrew and smiled shyly up at him, her eyes not quite meeting his. "Eat?"

"Yes, and I'll get you something for your illness, I can't have you ill now can I? And at some point get some new clothes and a bath." Naofumi told her with a warm smile, he went on to say, "By the way, I'm Naofumi, Naofumi Iwatani. What's your name? Don't want to keep calling you Slave now can I?"

"Ra… Raphtalia."

Naofumi smiled, as he thought to himself, _'Perfect, just one step closer to being able to leave this damn town, now I need to figure out what to do from here.'_

Clapping sounded from behind. "What a heartwarming display... I see you've made your choice."

Naofumi would have asked the Slave Trader for the key to remove the restraints that she had on, but he had to admit though they made her somewhat cute. It was strange, he couldn't explain it, but he thought that she looked good in them. He wasn't too worried about people asking about them, as whilst he could hide the collar that she would wear, he could tell people who ask about them that it was something that Raphtalia wanted to wear and so he allowed her to do so.

Whilst he wasn't too ashamed about having a slave, seeing that he had no other option but to have one to fight for him, he knew he needed to come up with a story for her. As he wouldn't put it past bitch and her bastard father to do something about taking her away should they learn that she was his slave.

Keeping her chained up for now, Beloukas pulled Raphtalia out of the room and down a few aisles, with Naofumi following them. As Naofumi followed Beloukas, he saw that whilst Raphtalia was coughing, she was sending him curious glances from time to time. It wasn't long before they got to the place that Beloukas was taking them, as he went through a door into another room.

_**o0OoO0o**_

Upon entering the room, Naofumi saw that there were a few people already in the room, three people that were dressed like the men he saw early in the warehouse, one of them was holding a jar that appeared to be full of ink. They won't alone, with them was a female red fox-like demi-human who had two tails, where they had white top at the end of the tails. She also had a white muzzle, which went down her throat and chest. In fact, there were white parts down her inner thigh and pitches of white on her back. She had long hers with black tips. She had black hair with white tips, her hair was in a ponytail. She had violet-like eyes.

She looked like she was around fifteen years old, whose breasts were a good size, not too big but not too small.

She was wearing a sexy dark red ao dai like outfit, with yellow and orange trimmings, she also had yellow and orange pauldrons and a slit side. She was also wearing a violet obi sash with a yellow trimming, it had some kind of flower symbol on it. She was also wearing a pair of black leg stockings going all the way down to her feet, which she was wearing toeless tabi boots, she was also wearing a pair of long pair of black gloves. Underneath the ao dai, she was wearing a very short pair of Bikini Shorts.

From what he remembered from his mythical books, she looked like a two-tailed Kitsune. From what he remembered about them, more tails that they had more powerful they were. So this one was a weak Kitsune.

Either way, when Naofumi saw this female, he had to ask, "Do you have another client here for this slave?"

"No, she is for you," Beloukas informed the new Slave Master, "as I told you earlier, there are those who want to help you, but for one reason or another can't do so publicly. So one of the groups sent you this young lady to serve you, to use in anyway you want."

"It is true My Lord," the female Kitsune told Naofumi, "I have been sent to help you in anyway possible. I have been trained in most areas, like being a maid, a fighter, a sex toy and assassin, just naming a few things. I was trained in these areas so that I could get what I had to without too much of a problem."

'_So, she's some sort of spy than.' _Naofumi thought to himself, only them would train in these sorts of areas, this worried him though, _'If she's a spy, can she be loyal to me though?'_

So he had to ask her, "Tell me, who are you loyal to?"

"For now, I'm loyal to my country, which is why I'm here, because they want me to protect you from harm." the vixen admitted honestly, "But once I gain the Slave Crest and Slave Collar, my loyalty will be with you only you, as the magic won't allow me to do otherwise. I'll only serve you in anyway possible if it means going against my own country so be it. If you have me, I'll serve you and only you."

"What country would send you to become my personal plaything?" asked Naofumi. He knew it wasn't the nicest of things to call her, although part of him liked the idea of her being his plaything, that's what the country sent her as. They had no idea how he would treat her, all they knew he could use her in ways that could make people have nightmares.

"I'm sorry to say I am unable to inform you," the vixen informed her possible new Master, "they placed magic to stop me from tell you things until magic removes itself from me, which can be weeks, even months away. They sent me here to show support for you, to make sure you don't come to any harm."

'_A funny way to show support, to send a slave to someone.' _Naofumi thought to himself, unable to believe this, _'Then again, I believe that people in my world had done such things before, sending slaves to be it for sex or to work on the land to show support. But now of them hid who they were though.'_

Naofumi sighed, if there was no way to ask her where she came from because of the magic on her, there wasn't going to get far with her. Then as he looked at Raphtalia, he could see that she was shaking in fear and worry, afraid that he was going to pick the older girl over her. Something deep within him felt sorry for her. So with a small smile, he reassured her, "Don't worry Raphtalia, I'm not going to leave you here, you'll be coming with me today." What she didn't know was that she was too important to him. Whilst she might remind him of the bitch, he knew that she could be trusted and would work hard for him, if he remembered the notes from his drawings correctly._ 'Damn, I wish I still have them, they sure would help me here.'_

"Th-thank you My… My Lord." Raphtalia thanked her new master, little less worried that he would leave her here to die.

"Now my little vixen, seeing that you can't tell me much as to who or why they really sent you here other than to support me, I would like to know your name, level and any abilities that could be useful to me." Naofumi told the vixen.

"You can call me whatever you like if you have me, in fact, I like how you call me vixen." the Kitsune demi-human told the Shield Hero with a blush, normally she hated being called that, but when the Shield Hero called her that, she felt a warmth of belonging to him and liked it. "But if you want my given me it's Kumiho and my level has been reset to level 1 so that you can level me up the way you want. I'm skilled in most combat, but I'm better at close combat than ranged. As for my abilities, like most Kitsune, I can shape change into anyone I need to, to get my mission done. As for my magical affinity, I have three skills, Healing, Summon and some Fire Magic which I mainly use on my swords. I have to inform you though, because of my levels being reset to level 1, I might have a few issues. However though, as I level up, I should be able to gain my former strength and be of some use to you, My Lord." she says with a sorry expression.

Naofumi had to admit that the skills that she had were very useful, her main class would be a Summoner/Healer. Whilst at level one she would be weak, as he knew that Summoners and Healers had weak attack up, as they level up, they can become quite powerful. Once she had some decent mana and magical attack points, she could heal and attack whilst he defends the group.

More he thought about this, the more he thought about getting her. Not only does she have some decent abilities that can be useful, she knows how to fight, so she could teach young Raphtalia how to use a blade too, which would make things so much easier. But something was bothering him though, "How did, whoever sent Kumiho here, knew I would come to get a slave, That they would need to send one here? What would have happened to her if I never came?"

"For your first question, they didn't know if you would come, but from what they heard of what happened to you, they guessed that you would come sooner or later need one. So they were one of the groups that sent me in search for you." the Slave Trader informed the hero. "Now if you never come, I was to send her back to her people a week after the next Wave."

Naofumi nodded at this seeing some sense in this, it would seem that whoever was helping him in the shadows have been keeping an eye on him since he got here if they knew what had happened to him. But still, another thing came to mind, "So why didn't you start her off in the first place?"

"Three reasons," Beloukas told Naofumi, " the first two were personal reason, although I have a deal with these people, I'm still a businessman, so it would be foolish of me not to try and sell you something before giving you something for free." Now this was something Naofumi could understand, no businessman would give anything away for free without getting something first and even then they would get as much as possible out of it. "The second reason was because of the deal I made with one of the groups, the people who sent Kumiho to me, wanted to make sure that you really wanted a slave on your own free will, not forced to have one because they sent one to you. So I was told that unless you asked for one or brought one yourself, I wasn't allowed to tell you about her until I knew you really wanted one."

Naofumi was somewhat glad to hear this, whoever these people were, they weren't forcing him to have Kumiho at all. So even if he turned her down now, he suspected that she would be sent back to wherever she came from. So after a few moments of thought, Naofumi realized that at the moment, more slaves he had the better, he would become stronger much faster this way. It helped that one of these slaves were, in fact, free.

So with a smile, Naofumi said, "Well, seeing how Kumiho here is indeed free for me to have and the fact remains I need as much help as I can get to get stronger, I would be a fool to turn this offer down. So I'll take her. But please tell these people that give her to me, although they sent her to help me, it doesn't mean I'll help them. I won't be used. I'll only help if it's in my best interest to do so."

"That I can fully understand Sir Naofumi." Beloukas said with a smile. He was more or less the same, he wouldn't do something unless it fits his own needs or benefits him somehow, as he looked out for number one, himself.

Kumiho would like to say that no one from her Kingdom wouldn't try and use the Shield Hero, as some would, in fact, try and control him for their own needs. Even the person who sent would too, some would use the fact that she was sent to him as leverage if needed. They would do this as a way to get back at Melromarc and the other kingdoms who would try and make their lives hell, all because they think that demi-humans were nothing animals/monsters and so should be treated as such. Most don't want to use the Shield Hero, but some would only so that they could get a better life.

Either way, her future was about to be decided as the Slave Trader asked, "So what do you say? Do you want her as your slave or not? And if so, what kind of slave do you want her, a fighter or a sex slave?"

"I'll admit that I really would like her as my slave, as her skills and abilities are well worth it." Naofumi informed the Slave Trader, making both Beloukas and Kumiho smile, although Kumiho's smile wasn't a full smile, although she agreed to the mission, she didn't really like the idea of being a Sex Slave, she would prefer to be a fight for the Shield Hero as a fight and not a Sex Slave. But if it was her leaders will, she would do whatever was needed, not like she hadn't done such mission before, using her body to get what she needed. But this is the first time that she became a real Sex Slave, sure a plaything and a sex toy, seeing how she enjoys sex, but never a real Sex Slave. But for this mission it would be her last one for her country, that's unless the Shield Hero release her later on, otherwise, she could become a fulltime Sex Slave for the Shield Hero - something she wasn't too sure about.

She didn't know what her future held, but she knew she would find out within the next few minutes. So she listened as the Sheild Hero asked, "But what's the difference between a normal slave and a sex slave?"

"Not much to be honest, but a Sex Slave gains an extra crest, one that'll stop them being used by anyone other than their Master or those the Master wants to them to have sex with. It also adds a few other functions to the slave crest options, like making them fertile or making them bear. Also, the crest makes it so that the slave will want to have sex when the master wants it, even if the slave doesn't want it or not." The Slave Trader informed the Shield Hero, "The crest would be placed on the pelvis."

"I see." Naofumi hummed thoughtfully, this was useful, he didn't have to worry about Kumiho falling pregnant. Whilst he had no plans to start a family in this damn world, he was more worried about her becoming pregnant and preventing her from fighting. As whilst he was planning to fuck her, he was going to have her fight for him too, so her getting pregnant would be problematic. He had no plans of using the crest to force her to have sex with him, that give him bad memories about the bitch and her calling him a rapist.

"WIll, I was advised to get a Sex Slave, who am I say no to a free one when it is being offered." Naofumi smirked, sure he wasn't going to use her too often, but the Slave Trader and whoever sent her didn't know that. It was an act, to make people this, to make them think that they could control him through sex. At the moment the thought of sex didn't agree with him too much, not after what happened with the bitch, but if he got too angry and needed someway to control himself, he would have something to occupy his time and mind.

Then a thought occurred to him, there were many sick assholes out there, and those who would use what was his to get to him, meaning his slaves. There might be assholes who might kidnap what was his and rape them, to get to him. He didn't like the idea, but he wouldn't put it past the bastard of this world to do, to make him pay for what he did to the damn First Princess. So if it helped to protect Raphtalia too, he might have her have one too, so he asked, "About this second crest, does it make it so that only the slave be unable to sleep with other people or does it stop other people sleeping with the slaves."

"It stops people from sleeping with the slave of course," Beloukas said in a matter of fact tone of voice, "as the master could order the slave not to have sex with someone."

Naofumi just scoffed at this, sure he expected that, but he didn't know how the Slave Crest work, so he had to ask these sorts of questions. So he just listened to the Slave Trader as he went on to say, "The crests gives the offender a nasty shock if he tries to have sex with the slave without the Master's permission, but if they keep on trying they could end up dying or losing something important to them." Beloukas give a dark knowing smirk at this, a smirk that Naofumi copied after he winched at the thought.

"Is it possible for you to place it on Raphtalia too?" asked Naofumi, where Beloukas smirked knowingly, here the Shield Hero give the man a dark look at this, and said, "It's not like that you perverted man, no, it's a way to protect her. I fear that someone might kidnap her and use her against me, either for the hell of it or just to get back at me."

"Ah I see." the Slave Trader hummed in agreement, he could see the reason why the Shield Hero wanted this for his new slave. He knew a few bandits who often have sex with their hostages, or rape the women from the carriages that they were robbing.

"So would it be possible to place one on Raphtalia and if so how much?" Naofumi asked with interest.

"Yes it is possible and normally for a non-slave, it would cost you another five silver coins." explained the Slave Trader, "However, seeing that you're getting the Sex Slave for free, I can use the remaining ink to create the second crest for free."

"Ink?" Naofumi asked, he thought that magic would be used to create the Slave Crest, "I thought that magic would be used to create the crest."

"And you would be correct, but for the crest to be on the body, I'll need to use ink to draw it onto the slave." the short man explained with a smile, "Normally for a normal crest, you just need some ink with a bit of your blood and bit of magic, but with the extra crest, not only would I your blood, but the slaves blood along with a few extra ingredients."

"I see," said Naofumi, "in that case, let's get on with this, I have things to do today."

"I understand Sir Hero, as they say, time is money." Beloukas told the Shield Hero with a smile, happy to get down to business. With that, he had the slaves undress, something that he admitted he wouldn't do normally, but with the extra crests he had to, as he had to link them together

At first, Naofumi wanted to look away to give the girls some decency, but in the end, he decided not to. It wasn't like he hadn't seen a naked female before, but he also wanted to see how the seals worked.

For the first crest, it seemed to be simple enough, all that happened was that Naufumi had to do was stab his thumb and allow a few drops of his blood into the ink. Here, the Slave Trader drew the crests onto his new slaves and connected it to Naofumi somehow. There were no chants, spells cost, nothing, all that happened was that the slave's stats and such appeared in his HUB.

For the second crest, with the reminding ink, Beloukas took a few drops of the slave's blood into the ink. Not only that, but he placed a few other unknown liquids into the ink, before he placed the crest onto them. He then printed an extra symbol onto the first crest to connect the two.

As the crests were put on them though, the two screamed out in pain, as the magic connected them to their new master. When asked about this, Beloukas explained it was part of the crest magic, as it was forcing the slave under the control of another person. He never once has seen an enslavement not being painful for the slave. But sadly, because the two had to go through two different Crest spells, they were knocked out from the pain.

Worried that his new slaves were hurt and no longer useful to him, he had to ask, "Is this normal? I don't want products that are hurt and useless."

"Don't worry, this is normal." Beloukas informed the Shield Hero, "Every so often the pain of going through of getting the crest is too much for a slave, especially if they get the second crest, so they sometimes blackout from the pain. Give them a while and they should be fine."

"I see." Naofumi hummed, as he said, "Seeing how they'll be unconscious for a bit, let's finish business here."

"That's good, let's go to my office, as there's some paperwork that needs to be done." Beloukas informed the Shield Hero, and with that, the Slave Trader lead Naofumi to his office, whilst Beloukas's men looked after Naofumi's new slaves.

_**To Be Continued!**_

_**Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END:**_ Here ends another chapter, I hope that you have enjoyed the story and if you did, I hope you leave your thoughts about this chapter. I'm sorry for the long chapter, but this chapter got away from me as I wrote it and I just couldn't find a good place to end it like the other chapters. But at long last thought, we got to the part of the story where we finally get Raphtalia, I know you guys have been waiting for this for a long time and to be honest, so have I.

The thing is, with all the new ideas that I have and my habit to go into detail, things keep getting away from me and until now I wasn't able to find the perfect time to add our favourite demi-human into the story. So you know, I have tried a few times to get her soon, but the chapters keep getting too big and new ideas kept coming to me. Either way, I'm finally happy to have her in my story.

Next I hope you like the new slave that I got for Naofumi, Kumiho. Now before you bitch and moan about her being a Sex Slave, if you haven't skim read the past chapters, as I know some of the readers have done, you would have seen the hints that I was planning for Naofumi to have one and Kumiho is it. So don't say I didn't hint about him not getting one as I did.

I'm still after your thoughts about the notes from past chapters and shields and OCs ideas, so if you got some time, before leaving a review, please look back at the notes and give me your thoughts. Not only that, but please if possible think about some shield ideas. The main shields that I'm looking for at the moment are still the ones that can level up by Skill Points and gain new abilities through levelling up the shields. I ask for these short of shields as whilst I got a few ideas for shields, I don't have enough, so I would like your help to have more in this story.

In fact, so you know, one of the shields that I'm going to use to be level up is the Slave Shield, which will give Naofumi more benefits and new abilities. But that's where things get tricky, whilst I have a few ideas for abilities that Naofumi gets as he levels up the shield, I only have a handful and I would like some more. So, if you got ideas for abilities that a Slave Shield can have, please let me know, as I would love to hear them. My friend Raven thought that one of the abilities would be alerted that his slaves were being attacked, this is something I'm not sure about and would like your thoughts on this subject.

So you know, I'm only after a transformation core ideas for Renka, as for Motoyasu, he won't have one. I'm going to have it so that he thinks he doesn't need one, as he is good looking and strong enough without one. Don't get me wrong, he'll still use core, but not to transform into another being, so if you got ideas for cores he can use, I would like to hear them.

A quick poll, for her first time, should Naofumi have sex with Raphtalia in her young form or her older form? Depending on the results, it'll help me decide how I should write their first time happens. You can vote in the review, on my profile page or both if you want to get your vote to win.

Now you got until I post the Omake I said I would be working on for Dragon Overlord to vote, which should be a few days to a week. It all depends on my muse and if it allows me to write or not.

As for the poll for the Lust Shield, here are the results:

Yes, give Naofumi the Lust Shield. 42

No, don't give Naofumi the Lust Shield. 17

Now I would like to thank you all for voting, if you didn't get the results that you wanted, then it wasn't done to me so please don't be upset with me about them. Next, I would like your help, now that we know that he'll be having the Lust Shield, I would like ideas as to how he could gain it and what powers he should have. Not only that, but I would like a side-effect he has to overcome before he could use it fully without the drawbacks getting in his way.


	12. Chapter 11

_**Author's Note: **_ Before we begin, if you find the story boring and not willing to wait for the action to start, please stop reading now. I have gotten a few reviews already about this, even though in my last chapter I told you all that the last few chapters were world-building chapters and that I often put in a lot of details before getting to the action. If you don't like this, please stop reading, as I'm not interested in hearing how you think the story is boring. The only time I want to hear that is if you got ideas on how to make it less boring.

And yes I am following canon at the moment, but I'm not the only one who does this, others do this too, only changing parts to fit their needs like I have. Sure they might not use as many words and go into such detail as I do, but as I said in the last chapter I often do this and I'm not about to change now. So if you don't like this, please stop reading… whilst I'll be trying to stop following canon as much, I won't be changing how much detail I'll be putting into the story.

_**Chapter Eleven… **_

_**Birth of Astaroth!**_

We begin our chapter with Beloukas leading the Shield Hero to his office, or what people called his office seeing how he barely uses it seeing he rarely was here. Naofumi had to admit he was surprised that the office wasn't anything special, all the office had was a few chairs of different sizes and a fancy desk that didn't look too expensive that was covered with different notes and papers, it was so underwhelming he had to ask why didn't he have a more fanciful office but before he could.

"If you're about to ask me why or where my office is, you don't need to bother," Beloukas told Naofumi, "as technically, it is, but at the same time it isn't. You see, I don't see any point in having an office with a lot for fancy-looking furnishings and such, especially given my job description requires me to travel a lot."

"Makes sense," admitted Naofumi, "although I expected that the room would look more to slaverer's den, to fit your trade."

"Ha, ha, you're not the first person who told me this." laughed Beloukas, "Anyway, down to business."

"Yes down to business." agreed Naofumi as pulled his money bag and counted out the coins to pay for Raphtalia. He had only pulled out sixty silver coins from his shield, as he feared he might be robbed if he carried all his money in his money bag. So he only put so much in his money bag and kept the rest in his shield.

"You've overpaid, Sir Hero, you give me thirty-one silver coins." Beloukas informed Naofumi, as he counted the coins that the Shield Hero gave him.

The Shield Hero just smirked at this as he said knowingly, "For the ceremony for Raphtalia's first crest. Sure you might have given me the second crest for free, but you were already paid to do so for Kumiho and her first crest was paid by whoever sent her, but not Raphtalia. So you were going to try and wring more money out of me somehow, weren't you?"

"You're indeed more wise than I give you credit for." Beloukas said with a smirk, happy to deal with a person who knows how the business game was played.

Naofumi knew that if he paid up-front, it made it hard for the Slave Trader to say anything about it afterwards. The Shield Hero would like to see Beloukas try to get more out of him now.

Now Naofumi was going to ask for the remaining of the slave ink that had his blood in, but before he could though, Beloukas said, "Before you leave, we still have more business to attend to, namely your Slave Owner Licence."

"Fuck…" muttered Naofumi, in the excitement of finally getting some help to fight, he forgot all about the Slave Owner Licence. Ulthane informed him that if he wanted a slave, he would need a licence to do so. So with a dark look, he asked the Slave Trader, "So are you going to flince me out of some more money somehow to get this licence? I don't think it'll be easy to get one for me seeing how people feel about me."

"Oh, it might be easier than you think." Beloukas smirked as out of the desk drawer, he pulled out some paperwork, "You see, the people that wanted to help you, knew that you would have some problems in getting the proper paperwork, so they were able to get some for you."

"But how?" Naofumi asked suspiciously, giving the Slave Trader a dark look that warned the merchant that he would be in a world of pain if he fucked with him.

"Oh those eyes, I love them." the Slave Trader told Naofumi, creeping the Shield Hero out a bit, "Either way, to be honest I have my suspicions, but at the end of the day I don't really care how they got them." Beloukas informed Naofumi, "At the end of the day they are official and I'm getting paid into giving them to you for free. So as long as I'm getting paid, I don't really care."

Naofumi sensed the man knew more than he was letting on, but seeing how he was getting a free licence to own a slave, he didn't care. The strange little man can keep his secrets.

"Anyway, I've got two Slave Owner Licences here for you, one each from your two secret helpers, and both of them are legitimate. But knowing you, you might want to have one as your official copy and the other as a substitute." smiled Beloukas.

"What do you mean?" asked Naofumi, wondering what this man was up to.

"I can use one to create an official licence for you and the other one I can use to create a fake licence for you, something I would presume you would want with how this kingdom is treating you right now." the Slave Trader informed the Shield Hero.

"How would that be useful?" asked Naofumi, "If a person asks for the slave to see their Status Card, wouldn't their master's name be on it?" Naofumi wasn't sure how these Status Cards worked, but he expected that as a slave, their master's name would be on it and so everyone would know who they belong to. Sure he had thought about getting a slave in the last week, but he expected that once people learn who they belong to, the slave would be treated just as bad as him, like not being served and such.

"Normally if they brought the slave in a legal Slave Auction House, but buying a slave on the Black Market is different." explained the Slave Trader, "As a Slave Trader can give a slave the ability to hide who they are as well as who their master is, the ability is called _**Fake ID**_, this allows the slave to create a fake Status Card with a new name and a false name of their master."

"Hmm," hummed Naofumi, "that is good, can you give the same ability to their Master to hide their identity? As if their master is around them, a person might ask for their Status Card too, which would reveal their true identity."

"Sadly I can't give masters this ability, which is why the _**Fake ID**_ can be dangerous for the Master." Beloukas admitted with a sigh, "That's why I advise people who buys slaves from me, if they need something underhanded done, they send the slaves alone, not go with them. Not unless they are willing to learn the ability called _**Fake Out**_."

"_**Fake Out**_?" asked Naofumi.

"It's an ability that allows a person to set up false information, so that if someone has the ability to read your stats or you give a person your Status Card to look at, all they would see is the stats you want them to see." explained Beloukas.

"How does that help me?" asked Naofumi, "Does _**Fake Out**_, also alters or hides my name too?"

"Sadly no," Beloukas admitted to the young man, "at least not at first, if you use it often enough, the ability becomes stronger and it'll allow you to change it. But not many people are willing to put in the work or the effort to get the next stage of the ability. It is believed that if you use this ability long enough, it can give you more abilities, but other than a handful of people wanting to hide their name too, no one bothers to fully master the ability. As it takes way too long to master and by the time someone does master it, if they weren't smart enough to hide that they have slaves or connected to the slaves from the black market, it is most likely the kingdom learnt who the person in question real name and face, making it hard for it to actually be effective. The clover ones though, well they find the skill very useful."

As Naofumi heard this, it reminded him of his shields and abilities back in his own world where you can level them up and be able to give you better abilities to work on. So he asked, "So how can I learn this ability? Can I buy the ability or do I need someone to teach it to me?"

"You can do either, but if you want to buy the ability, the stores will normally want to see your Status Card first, even her in the Black Market." explained the Slave Trader, "And for someone to teach you, well, unless you are lucky to find someone who doesn't mind who you are, you'll have a hard time learning it."

"I see." sighed the young Shield Hero, unhappy about this, but still, if his slaves were able to learn this ability, it would be for him. As they could do jobs for him where he could not. So with another sigh he asked, "So how does this _**Fake ID**_ ability work?"

"For this ability to work, I would normally need some fake documents, like from the kingdom the licence is from, where the slave was bought and such. Which I have thanks to the people who want to help you." explained the Slave Trader, "Then all I have to do is give them a new name to go with their _**Fake ID**_ and we're done. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes for each of your slaves."

"Can I change their fake names whenever I want?" asked Naofumi, he asked as he feared that if someone connected the fake names to him, he might need to change it at some point.

"Yeah it's easy enough," Beloukas informed him, "all you have to do is open their Status Window whenever you want, and alter their _**Fake ID**_ as you see fit, like their stats, names, even their skills, to hide what they really can do."

"Hmm, I see that's very useful." hummed Naofumi, "If I'm able to open their Status Window, what would I be able to do with it?"

"Unfortunately not much, you can give them a few new skills/magic if you buy them, you can remove a limited amount of skills." the Slave Trader told the Shield Hero.

"What do you mean by limited?" asked Naofumi.

"Like if they have cooking or blacksmith abilities, once they know how to do them the memory of them stays and they'll always be able to do them." explained Beloukas, "Now, say your slave has the ability to use Fire Magic and you remove the ability to use it, sure they'll have the memory of how to do it, but the ability would be sealed and they won't be able to use it."

"Hmm I see." Naofumi hummed at this, then with a dark smile he went on to say, "It isn't much, but it's better than nothing I guess, at least I can make sure they have the abilities that'll serve me the best."

"Oh I do love it when I get customers who know how to get the fullest out of their product." the Slave Trader said with a smirk.

"So tell me, what kingdoms are these licences from?" asked Naofumi.

"One is from this very kingdom Melromarc and the other is from Siltvelt." the little man informed the Shield Hero.

"The hell?" Naofumi asked in shock, Siltvelt wasn't too much of a surprise, sure he wasn't expecting it, but seeing how it was a demi-human kingdom who thought he was like a god and so would do anything in their power to help him, he could see them doing something like that. Lending him help where they can. But the biggest shock was the licence Melromarc, he honestly thought that other than Ulthane and Crusch, everyone else hated him. "Who the hell here wants to help me? I thought that they all hated me here."

"I wouldn't say that, those in the kingdom who are still here are too afraid to help you." Beloukas informed him, "As they fear what might happen if they do, as so far the king has already warned people that they would be punished if they did. Sure they might be cowards, but the king's power goes far whilst his wife is away. Even if she was here, there are those loyal to him and those who hate what you represent."

"Fucking hell." swore Naofumi.

Beloukas just smiled at this as he went on to explain, "And the one who is behind the licence here are out of the kingdom, it could be someone is trying to solve some of the problems that the king is causing." Then seeing how the Shield Hero was going to ask who it was, the strange man stopped him as he said, "Before you ask, I can't tell you who they are, as it is part of the deal. But I can say they have enough connections to be able to get you these licences."

"Damn it…" said Naofumi, he was hoping to meet these people, to see what else they could do to help him.

"Either way, which of the licences would you like as your fake and the other one as your real one?" asked Beloukas.

Naofumi had to think about this for a few minutes, wondering which would be the best one to use. Than a dark thought came to him, "I would like the licence from Melromarc to be my fake one and the licence from Siltvelt to be my real one." Naofumi said with a dark smile.

"Oh, why would you want that for?" asked the Slave Trader, loving the look Naofumi had, guessing what the Shield Hero had planned already.

"Simply put, I want to rub this kingdoms noses in it should they learn that I have a slave, letting them know that Siltvelt was the one to help me out when they wouldn't." Naofumi said with a smirk.

"I thought as much, that'll upset a lot of people." Beloukas said with a smirk of his own.

"Like I care, they piss me off, so I'm just returning the favour." Naofumi told the man with a shrug, not caring who he upset.

"Fair enough." the Slave Trader said simply before asking, "So for your Melromarc licence, what name would you like to use."

Now Naofumi had once again had to think about this, he wasn't really good at naming things, he would normally pick something simple. But for this, he wanted a name that meant something. As he thought about it, he realized that if people thought that he was a demon, he should have a demon name from his own world. He knew he couldn't use any demonic names from Japan, as if he did, the other heroes would be able to guess who he was. So that left with the Eastern part of the world, from what he remembered reading from their culture, they had many names to pick from, but the three most powerful demons were Lucifer the Fallen Angel also known as Satan, the ruler of hell. The other demon was Beelzebub, who was meant to be the Prince of Demons. And lastly there was Astaroth, the Great Duke of Hell and Treasurer of Hell, who commands forty Legions of Demons.

In most books that Naofumi read, it was said that they were known as the Evil Trinity, with Lucifer being the strongest and Astaroth being the weakest of the three. Now Naofumi knew he couldn't pick Lucifer, as if the heroes world were like his as he suspected, Lucifer would be well-known. That left Astaroth or Beelzebub, but Naofumi decided to use Astaroth for two reasons. The first is that depending on what anime they had in their worlds, they would know the name of Beelzebub so might put things together and realize who he was that way. The other reason was that he didn't like the idea of being named Beelzebub, because the demon's name meant Lord of the Flies and the demon meant to look like a grent fly. This was something that Naofumi didn't like, so he went with Astaroth.

In fact, getting this fake identity helped Naofumi in another way too, seeing how he wanted to become a bandit, Naofumi wanted a way to keep people learning that the bandit was him. So having this new identity would help a lot, he could use it to become a bandit and no one would know who he was. All he needed now was to find a way to disguise himself so that no one could tell who he was when he was being a bandit, as he didn't want to get arrested.

So deciding on the name, the young Shield Hero said, "For the fake one, I would like the name on it to be Astaroth."

"Sure Shield Hero, can I ask is there any reason to the name?" the Slave Trader asked out of interest.

"To mock this kingdom," explained Naofumi, "you see Astaroth was meant to be the name of a powerful demon in my world. So to mock this kingdom, I thought I would use a demonic name. I highly doubt either this world or the other heroes would know the name."

The Slave Trader chuckled at this, he loved the idea of this, the Shield Hero mocking the king and his daughter and they would never know it. "I love how your mind works Shield Hero, or should I call you Astaroth?" Beloukas asked with a smirk.

Naofumi just smirked at this, as he said, "When it's just the two of us call me what you like, in Black Market area it's Astaroth, otherwise you don't know me."

"Fair enough," Beloukas said with a bow of his head, "so if there's nothing else, let's sign these paperworks so that I can finish sorting out your slaves."

"There's one other thing, do you sell clothes, armour and the like?" asked Naofumi, hoping that he could get some gear here and now, so he could leave right away.

"Not really," Beloukas informed the Shield Hero, "matter of fact, as a travelling slave merchant, I don't see the point of selling clothes and equipment. I might come across items that might be of interest to some of my special customers, so I would get them to sell onto them."

Naofumi was shocked to hear this, he expected that the Slave Trader would have a few items another way to gain income. Either the strange little man didn't think about it, or he didn't see the point of it, which was foolish, as that meant he was losing another source of income. So Naofumi thought to himself that if he pointed this out, he might gain a useful ally. As he might one day come back here for more slaves to help him in the Waves, so he said, "And you call yourself a businessman."

"And what do you mean by that?" Beloukas asked with interest, wondering what the Shield Hero had in mind.

"When I leave here, like many other past owners, I'll go to the shops and buy new clothes and equipment for them so that they are useful to me." Naofumi told the older man.

"The point of this?" asked Beloukas, although he had a good idea as to where the young man was getting at, but wanted to make sure.

"My point is that the money would be going to you instead of the shops," Naofumi said as he saw that Beloukas was getting the point, "if you had the clothes and equipment, you can get the money instead of the shops down here."

Beloukas never really thought about it, this was because most of his money was in gaining new slaves and finding people to sell them. He never really cared about selling clothes and equipment, he thought if the owners wanted them, they would be able to get them elsewhere. He never thought about selling the stuff to get more money out of it too.

"Thanks for the idea Shield Hero," Beloukas thanked the young man, "up 'tel now, I only thought about selling slaves, I never thought about the benefits of selling clothes and equipment. I'll have to look into getting some stock in soon for the future."

"No problem, it was my pleasure." said Naofumi, not going to ask for rewards, as he knew if he asked for a reward, it would be difficult for him in the future. As asking for rewards from a potential ally would look bad, and he would need an ally like Beloukas, seeing how he had an ear out in the underworld of crime. "So can we finish up here, I would like to see if my product is ready. If possible, I would also like any remaining ink you might have, as I fear someone might use it against me in some way." He was thinking about his blood, in a few games he played along with some of the Web/Light Novels that he read, they had it that people could use his blood against him in one form or another if a person got hold of it. So to prevent this, he wouldn't allow his blood left lying about where anyone could use it. Not only that, but he wanted to see if he could create a new shield with the ink.

"Sure, I have no problems with that." said Beloukas, as the two begun to finish the paperwork.

_**o0OoO0o**_

Once they were done, the two went back to get Raphtalia and Kumiho. As they returned to the room that Naofumi's slaves were in, Naofumi found them naked and kneeling on the ground waiting for him. Upon seeing him, both of them welcomed him back by saying, "Welcome back Master."

Whilst Naofumi wouldn't admit it, there was a part of him that enjoyed the sight, the two of them naked and kneeling in front of him. He had to wonder, did his anger or hate twist him even more than he first thought? Before today, he would never have thought that he would enjoy the sight like this. He enjoyed reading about it in manga and novels, but he knew it wasn't real and so would never happen. But now, even if there was a part of him knew it was wrong, he liked the way the two were right now.

'_At long last, I'm finally getting the respect that I deserve.'_ a dark and twisted part of him thought. But shaking it off for now, he said, "You two stand up, we're leaving in a moment."

"Yes Master!" the two of them said at once, as they stood up. When they saw Beloukas walking towards them, Raphtalia shivered in fear.

"You have nothing to fear," Naofumi reinsure the young girl, "he is going to give you two an ability to hide the fact that I'm your master."

"Wh-why is… that Master." asked Raphtalia, as she coughed.

'_I'll need to do something about that if she's going to be any use to me.' _thought Naofumi, he couldn't have a weak slave fighting for him. But answering her question, he said, "A few reasons, but the main reason is that there'll be a lot of time when I don't want people knowing who you belong to, so this ability well prevent people from finding out. At which point, when you have this ability on, or if I tell you too, I want you to call me Master Astaroth and the rest of the time, unless told otherwise, you'll call me Master Naofumi. Is that understood."

"Yes Master!" the two of them replied with a bow. Whilst Raphtalia was a bit unsure about this, she was willing to do what her Master told her, Kumiho on the other hand, knew all too well the need to have a different name, so had no problem with this.

"Before I do this, I would like to know, what names should I use?" asked the Slave Trader.

"Hmm," Naofumi hummed thoughtfully, unsure about this, so he was allowed his two slaves decide, "you two, I'm awful with picking names, so what would you two would like to be called?"

"Master, can you tell me what this ability does before I pick a name?" asked Kumiho. And so Naofumi explained how the ability worked. Once he was done and Kumiho understood it, she said, "In that case, I would like to be called Vixen."

"Are you sure about this?" asked Naofumi, "As unless I see a reason to change it, you'll be using the name a lot. I know you said you don't like the name, so I want you to have names that you are comfortable with."

"We're your slaves, so you could call us whatever you want and even if it's uncomfortable, we would just have to bare with it." Kumiho told her Master.

"I understand that, but I just want to give you this one opportunity to decide for yourself, as you'll won't have many times like after today." Naofumi told her.

"I understand and I thank you for this opportunity." Kumiho thanked her master with a bow, "But either way, I still want to be called Vixen, as I told you, I like it when you call me it."

"I understand," said Naofumi before he turned to Raphtalia and asked her, "What about you, what would you like to be called?"

"Cough, cough, n-no master… I, I never thought… about it and… unable to come up… with a name." said the weak girl.

Seeing how the girl couldn't think of anything, Naofumi thought about it for a few moments, until he thought of a name. A name that he got from an old anime back from his world called The Eccentric Family, where in it there was a Tanuki girl like Raphtalia seemed to be, called Kaisei. So he thought that until Raphtalia could come up with her own name. "Seeing that you can't think of one, how about the name Kaisei. At least until you can come up with a name for yourself."

"Th, that's fine… Master." Raphtalia said shyly.

Naofumi sighed at this, sure he wants his slaves to be loyal and dependent on him, but he didn't want them this shy. He would need to work on this, so that this shyness wouldn't become so annoying. But that was for later, for now he needed to get out of her and level his two new slaves up. So turning to Beloukas, he said, "You heard the names, can we start."

"Of course Shield Hero." the Slave Trader said with a smile, as he walked up to them as he altered the crest a bit until a new Status Window appeared in front of Naofumi, which showed him the _**Fake ID**_ details.

Upon seeing this and his new name Astaroth as the owner of the slaves, a thought occurred to him and so he asked, "Is it possible to change the owners name in the _**Fake ID**_?"

"It is possible, but I wouldn't see why you would want to." said Beloukas, "As without the proper paperwork, you would be asked a lot of questions as to why you have a slave that doesn't belong to you."

Naofumi smirked at this, as he said, "Not if I told people that the slaves belonged to someone else and that I got them as part of a job, seeing how I can't attack. Like some sort of protection job for a merchant caravan or merchant who needs some product delivered but can't do it themselves. I'll make it out that the slaves were theirs and I'm just borrowing them for the mission."

"You're an interesting lad Shield Hero," Beloukas said with a sly smile, as he finished the _**Fake IDs **_"I don't know anyone who thought about using the _**Fake ID **_the way you have."

"Maybe that's because they're not in the same position as I am, where I need to think of ways to get money and such without people knowing who I am." Naofumi told him.

"Very true." admitted the Slave Trader.

"Have you finished with my product?" Naofumi asked the little man.

"I have." Beloukas told the Shield Hero with a smile.

"In that case, you two get dressed we'll be leaving once you're done." Naofumi told his two new slaves.

"Understood Master!" the two slaves said together as they got dressed.

Once they were dressed, Beloukas showed Naofumi and his slaves out of the warehouse. But as they got to the exit of the warehouse, the Slave Trader pointed to a medieval looking market stall, something until now Naofumi didn't realize was there when he first came in. The stall had huge eggs on it."

"Could I interest you in taking part in a monster egg lottery. Pay a hundred silver coins and you'll be guaranteed to get at the very least a Fiolial or a Chocobo. You'll win a monster chick and if you take care and raise it well, you can at least double the value of it, even more depending on how you raise it."

"Chocobos?" asked Naofumi. He knew what Filolial was, but not a Chocobo, not unless you were talking about the birds from the Final Fantasy games that he used to play. But he didn't think they would be in this world, would they?

"Master, you might have seen them in town," Kumiho began to explain, "they are huge birds, look a lot like Filolials, but with slight differences to them, other than Filolials are normally white, whilst Chocobos normally yellow. Another thing, whilst Filolials can be used in some races and also pulling carriages, you can even put armor on them but it has to be light or it would hinder their speed and movability. Chocobos on the other hand are mostly bread for racing and pulling carriages to but they can wear heavy armor and are much faster than the Filolials but it comes with the price that they are not as movable as the Filolials meaning they can't take sharp corners easily."

"I see…" muttered Naofumi to himself, it would seem that Chocobos really were in this world too from what Kumiho told him.

"And what's more, if you hit the jackpot, you can win a dragon type monster worth twenty gold coins." Beloukas went on to explain about the eggs.

"So it's like a gacha game then." Naofumi muttered to himself.

"What's a gacha game?" asked Raphtalia, with Kumiho nodding along, wanting to know about this too.

"Oh, don't worry about it, it's something from my world." explained Naofumi, leaving it at that, not wanting to explain the details of the game to them."

"So would you like to give it a shot?" asked the Slave Trader.

Naofumi had to think about this, sure he might have the money to get at least one egg, but he needed to save his money to buy clothes and equipment for his new slaves. Sure the outcome could be useful seeing how he might get a Filolial, something he wanted to get, but he couldn't spend that much just yet. Not until he could get a steady income first.

"Thanks, but I used most of my coins to get Raphtalia," explained Naofumi, "so I need to use the few remaining to get my slaves new clothes and equipment."

"I'm sure you do!" Beloukas broke out in gales of laughter, not believing him, like he knew the Shield Hero was lying to him.

"Let's go you two." Naofumi told Raphtalia and Kumiho as he was about to lead them out of the wearhouse.

But as he was leaving, Beloukas called out to him, "Hey kid, would you be interested in a job?"

"Are you offering me this job because it was part of the deal you made with the people who want to help me?" Naofumi asked the man darkly, not wanting to be indebted to people who weren't willing to talk to him face to face, these sorts of people he couldn't trust.

"Oh no my boy, oh no, I'm offering you this job as you interest me." admitted Beloukas, "There's something about you that makes me think that things about to get interesting and helping you might help me down the road. You did say you need money and here I am offering you a job to get some. If you agree, I can help you with the shopping around here, as people in the Black Market or the rest of places down here, don't trust strangers and might not be willing to help you, but I can help you with that problem if you agree to help me."

Naofumi had to admit that the damn man got him there, he did need the coins and at the very moment he wasn't able to get any other work. Not only that, but he was right, people down in this underground crime land, no one would be willing to help him seeing he was the Shield Hero and his new identity was new and no one knew him so might be hard to get them to trust him. So he had no option but to agree, so he asked, "Fine, I'll take your job offer, not like I have much option if I want to earn coins. So what's this job?"

"Just a simple delivery," Beloukas said with a smile, "I have a few slaves that I need to deliver to the mayor in Lute Village. His village was attacked by the monsters that were left over from the First Wave, they killed his villagers and slaves that helped around the village, so he wants more. I would go myself, but I have a few things I need to do around here. Now I would send one of my own men, but seeing that I want to help you out, I'll send you instead. As once you give the slaves to the mayor, you can keep the money that he gives you."

"What about you?" Naofumi asked suspiciously, "I don't see you letting money go without getting something in return."

"We just meet, but you know me so well." the Slave Trader said with a creepy smile as he tried to hug Naofumi, but for the Shield Hero pushed him away. "But you're right, I wouldn't give money away for nothing, but you see, he paid me over half for the slaves already. So he would only be giving you what he owes me, but seeing how you need the money and seeing like I said that there's something about you that makes me think that things about to get interesting, I want to help you out. As in the long run, I think what you do will be beneficial for me."

"Is there anything else I should know about the job?" asked Naofumi.

"Just one thing, apart for the monsters that you might come across, you might come across a group who might try and free the slaves." explained Beloukas, "You see, over the last few years there's a new group going around trying to set all the slaves free for some reason, so they try and take them from their masters as well as those who are bringing the slaves to their new masters like you'll be doing."

"Oh I see… so there are those sort of people here too, not that I'm not surprised." Naofumi said aloud, "What I am surprised about, is that it took this long for a group to appear."

"You know these sort of people Shield Hero?" Beloukas asked in surprise.

"Not personally no," Naofumi told him, "but in my world's history there were people like that who tried and succeeded to free slaves from slavery and stop slavery altogether."

Beloukas paled at the thought, his business was all about slavery, if this group succeeded in stopping slavery altogether, it would mean the end of his business. He would have to talk to the other Slave Traders about this, to see if he could stop them. That would have to wait, for now he had to finish his business with Naofumi, so he said, "So tell me Sir Hero, are you still willing to take the job?"

Naofumi was uneasy with the job, he felt disgusted that he was even thinking about agreeing to this job. He was going to take part in selling people to another person, taking away the slaves free will to do anything anymore. But the problem was that he didn't have any other job requests coming to him, seeing how the damn trash of the king and his bitch of a daughter made it near impossible in getting quests and so earning money.

'_**It's not like you are innocent anyway,' **_a dark thought popped into his head, reprimanding him, _**'didn't you just get yourself two slaves just now, stealing their future and free will from them? What makes you any different to those who are buying the slaves from this Slave Trader.'**_

Naofumi knew that this dark thought was right, he was just as bad as them. Sure he could think to himself that it was for the Greater Good, that he needed them so that he had a full range of fighting. But it didn't mean the other heroes would see it that way, not only that, but he wouldn't be surprised that when people learn about this, they would turn on him. _'Double standards my ass.' _Naofumi thought darkly, knowing that even if the people had slaves, they would turn on him for doing so too.

Thinking about it for a few moments, he decided to swallow this feeling of guilt and bury it down. Like it or not, he needed the slave himself, feeling guilty about this won't help him. It's not like slavery was illegal in this world, so what if people might see him more of a demon. Well at least this way calling him the Shield Demon, he would have committed a real sin to be called a demon.

"Seeing how I don't have any other offers for jobs and I need the coins, I accept the job." Naofumi agreed to the job offer. As he did agree to this job though, a status window popped open in front of Naofumi.

_**Slave Deliver Job Accepted… **_

_Rewards:_

1000 EXP (Unclaimed)

? Coins (Unclaimed)

Naofumi couldn't believe what he was getting this window, he had to wonder if it was something that everyone had or if it was something to do with him being a hero or part of his Strengthening Method. He would have to ask Ulthane about this. For now he would have to see if he would be able to get some new clothes for Raphtalia and equipment for both of them, as he couldn't just have Raphtalia wear rags.

But before he left, he said, "You said that you can help me with getting new clothes and that."

"Ah yes, I did, didn't I, here have this." With that the Slave Trader gave him a silver skull ring, the skull was wearing a black top hat just like the Slave Trader was wearing. Not only that, but the hat had also had a card on it with the number three on it. "If you show it to anyone here, you'll find that people will be friendly towards you. All I ask is that you don't upset them unless they bad mouth me or you first."

"I have no problem with that." agreed the Shield Hero as he took the ring from the had no idea why the ring was so important, neither did he really care, if the man was important and this ring helped him, Naofumi didn't care. With a nod Naofumi was about to leave as a new status window open and his job was updated:

_**Slave Deliver Job Accepted… **_

_Rewards:_

Slever's Signet Ring (Claimed)

1000 EXP (Unclaimed)

? Coins (Unclaimed)

"Oh and Shield Hero, before you go, the ink that you asked for." Beloukas called out before Naofumi could go far, he handed the bottle of ink that Naofumi wanted. Not only that, but the Slave Trader walked behind the stall and picked up two hooded cloaks and gave them to Naofumi, "It isn't much, but I think it'll help you out hiding who they are."

"Thank you." Naofumi said simply as he threw the cloaks to his slaves and told them to wear them, he also told his slaves to use the _**Fake ID**_. After which, the three of them left the warehouse and went shopping.

_**o0OoO0o**_

Naofumi brought the two girls some several pairs of clothing for his new slaves, for Raphtalia, he got her a few pairs of red battle dresses which were made of reinforced and durable clothes, with some leather padding added for a bit more protection. As for Kumiho, although she already had an outfit, Naofumi wanted to get a few more just in case they needed them. So he got her a miko outfit, the outfit was made of a white kosode and a red hakama, it was the kind of outfit she liked to wear when she could. As for weapons, he decided to go and see Ulthane about them, as he was the only one he could trust to give him weapons.

Naofumi was somewhat surprised, as when he showed them the Slever's Signet Ring to the stores, they seemed to acknowledge even more. Saying that a friend of the Slave Trader was welcome in their store, where they would be treated fairly. So whilst he was shopping, he got supplies that he wasn't able to get back in town without Ulthane's help.

Now as they were walking around the town, Naofumi went down an alley to put the slave ink into his shield where he got a new shield.

_**Slave Trainer Shield - Level 1:**_

_Equip Bonus:_

Growth Adjustment (Small) (Unmastered)

Slave Status Adjustment (Small) (Unmastered)

EXP Bonus: 5% (Unmastered)

Whilst the shield itself just gave him the basic defence of five defence and five magical defence when wearing the shield, the equip bonuses seemed to be very useful to make the slave stronger.

Looking up what the Growth Adjustment did, Naofumi learned that the ability would make it so that the slave would reach their peak potential growth. So if like Raphtalia, who has a weak body, as she levels up, she would get a better body, become stronger and faster, as the skill would fix it so that she would grow in a specific direction. Which was useful, he would have to look later to see if he could make any adjustments himself or if it was out of his hands.

As for Slave Status Adjustment, he already expected what it would do for his slaves and when he looked it up to make sure, he found he was right. As his slaves level up, their stats would be better than before, so over time become stronger.

And with the final the 5% EXP Bonus, whilst not much, it was a good amount depending on how much EXP his slaves might get. Sure at the start it would be only about one extra EXP, but it was better than nothing. But if he guessed right, as he levelled the shield up, the bonus EXP would go up too and so give them more EXP for the slave.

Naofumi hoped that as he levelled this shield up, he would get some decent skills to make his slaves stronger. He didn't really want to only have extra experience points.

Once they were done with the shopping, Naofumi told his slaves that if anyone asked about them, they belonged to Beloukas and he had hired him to help to level them up. When asked why, Naofumi explained he didn't want people to know that he had slaves yet, as he was worried what people might do if they knew. The two nodded at this order and agreed to it.

So once they left the underground market district, they went back into town and went to district Ulthane's shop. When they entered the shop, Ulthane was behind the counter, with Crusch nowhere to be seen. Upon seeing Naofumi and his slaves, Ulthane asked, "Oh Lord Naofumi you're back, who are these young ladies with you?" Here Naofumi told the man what was going on, where afterwards Ulthane said, "I see, I'm glad that you have found people that you can trust, even if you had to buy them."

"WIsh there was another way around it, but this is the best I can do thanks to the bitch and her father." Naofumi said darkly, before careering up a bit and asking, "So where's Crusch? I thought she would be here, she said she was going to teach me something today."

"I just sent her on an errand, she should be back soon." Ulthane informed the young man.

"Okay, in that case, can I get some weapons for Raphtalia and Kumiho please." said Naofumi as he pointed to his slaves.

"What weapons would you like for them?" asked Ulthane.

"Hmm for Raphtalia, I would say some small and basic, seeing how she never fought before." Naofumi said thoughtfully, "As for Kumiho, hmm, Kumiho, what would you prefer to use seeing how you said that you're good at combat, I let you pick your weapon."

"I'm able to use any weapon that you want me to use Master." Kumiho said with a bow.

"I understand that, but I want you to be able to use weapons that fits you. I don't want you to have something that'll hinder you." Naofumi informed her.

"In that case Master, I normally use three blades, a katana, a wakizashi and a tanto." Kumiho informed her master, "But seeing how you don't have much money at the moment, I'll take a tanto, it's small and easy to hide if I have to. And should anyone learn that I'm a Sex Slave, they would suspect me to have a small blade, so a tanto would be ideal for me to have."

"Okay, that's fine," Naofumi told her before he turned to the black smith and said, "so I would like a tanto and a small weapon that you think would suit Raphtalia."

Hearing this, Ulthane brought out a few level one tantos for Kumiho to pick from, where he got a few knives for Raphtalia to test out. In the end, Kumiho got a steel tanto with a red handle and sheath, with ten attack points to it. As for Raphtalia, in the end she ended up with a bronze knife which had eight attack points to it.

"Okay, Raphtalia, Kumiho these are your new weapons. I expect you both to use it to fight monsters. Do you understand?" Naofumi asked them, as he gave them the weapons.

"I understand master." said Kumiho with a bow as she took her weapon.

As she took her weapon, Raphtalia looked terrified at the weapon. Sure she thought that she was willing to do whatever it took to keep her new Master happy, but now she was holding a weapon, she wasn't too sure, she had some doubt about it all. But she knew that if she didn't do what her Master asked of her, she would be sent back to the Slave Trader where she would more than likely die. So fixing her eyes to her Master, she could only nod in agreement.

Naofumi then opened his cape only to reveal that he had several Orange Balloons there. As he removed one and held it, Ulthane smirked as he said, "So I see that you still got some of them with you."

Hearing this, Kumiho had a look of amusement and entertainment, with a hint of an impressive look as she looked upon the Balloon Monsters biting into her new master without causing him pain or any damage. At the same time though, Raphtalia looked wide-eyed in fear at the monsters in front of her and stepped away hiding behind Kumiho.

"Well, it helps to keep people from bothering too much if they knew that I would set a few of these upon them." Naofumi smirked at this, then he looked a bit disappointed as he went on to say, "I have to admit I'm a bit sad at how weak this town is if they can't handle a few Orange Balloons."

"You have to remember, most people in town aren't adventures, most people around here are at max level ten." explained Ulthane, "Only those who were adventures before settling down have higher levels."

"Don't get me wrong, I understand that, I really do, but if you live surrounded by monsters, you would have thought they would know how to deal with low level monsters with ease?" Naofumi let out his thoughts about this, "What if some of these monsters got into town and no adventures or guards were around and unable to escape, what then? Not only that, but what if you were going to another town, village or just outside the town for some reason, what then?"

Ulthane had to admit that the Shield Hero had a point there, one he never thought about before. Maybe it was down to him being stronger and taller than most, that he never thought what could happen to others, as he could handle himself with ease. Because of this, he wasn't sure what to say about this.

Seeing this, Naofumi decided to get on with what he had planned for these girls but first he wanted to talk with you one more thought, "And one more thing I just realized, if you get HP and higher-level skills through leveling up, shouldn't it be a good idea to level up just to be more healthier and safer, staying low level and losing out on those abilities and perks kind of seem stupid." Naofumi said as he removed one of the Orange Balloons and held it out to Kumiho. "You told me that you were able to fight, so I want you to prove it to me and kill this Balloon."

"Of course Master," Kumiho said with a smile, "could you throw it up so I can show you what I can do!"

Naofumi just shrugged at this, unable to see why he shouldn't, so he threw the Balloon high in the air, where Kumiho jumped up and attacked as if it was nothing. She was able to defeat it after a few hits it popped.

Naofumi: 1 EXP

Raphtalia: 1 EXP

Kumiho: 1 EXP

Whilst Naofumi was happy about this, Kumiho looked down.

"I knew my strength would go down when my levels were reset, but I didn't remember being this weak when I was level one." Kumiho unhappily said to herself, "Before I could defeat such things with one hit."

But Naofumi wasn't really listening, as he didn't care about her past, but what she can do for him now. Sure it would be nice if she was stronger, but she was good enough for his needs right now. Realizing that he hadn't checked her stats yet, he did so right now:

Name: Vixen. Race: Demi-Human Kitsunes. Class: Slave. Guild: None.

Level: 1 EXP: 1/60

Status: Slave.

Owner: Beloukas

Special Abilities:

Shape Changer.

Magic Affinity:

Healing.

Summoning.

Fire Magic

Health Points: 100 Mana Points: 70

Physical Attack: 10 Magic Attack: 30

Physical Defence: 20 Magic Defence: 20

Dexterity: 10

Stamina: 120 Carry Weight: 120 lbs

Elemental status

Fire Attack: 10, Resistance: 5. Electricity Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Water Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Light Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Wind Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Ice Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Earth Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Darkness Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Naofumi was happy with these stats and by the looks of things, the _**Fake ID **_was working as it should be, seeing that her fake name and master was being shown. With her having some attack and Resistance in fire, she could do well with fire. From what she told him, she didn't use it much seeing it was her weakest of her Magic Affinity so only used Fire Magic on her weapons. That didn't make any sense to Naofumi, sure it might be her weakest skill, but it didn't mean she should only use it for basic things like on her weapons. Given time and training, Naofumi thought that even the weakest skill like an elemental skill could become strong. This would be something he would have to deal with, as he'll need all the abilities he can get to survive the Waves of Calamity.

Either way, at least he knew how good she really was and what he got to work with, seeing how she knew Healing and Fire Magic, she would be a great help in one of the upcoming Waves. As if his dreams were right, he would be facing the undead soon and they had the same weakness as the undead in the games he played back in his world, then her Healing and Fire Magic would be very useful against them. He could even have her teach him some Healing Magic.

Either way, he now had to see what his next slave could do, so taking out another Orange Balloon from himself and held it out to the young girl. "Okay now, you're up next Raphtalia. I want you to stab this and pop it."

"I... uh..." shuttered the young girl, now that she was facing a real monster, her hands were shaking and she nearly dropped her new sword. She wasn't sure if she could do this now.

But the problem was that Naofumi wasn't having any of this, he brought them to fight for him and he wasn't about to let her get out of it. "That's an order. Do it." He ordered her firmly.

"I... No!" She obstinately shook her head. Sure she told herself that she would do whatever it took to make her master happy, but this was something she wasn't ready for, to kill a living being, even if it was a monster. The problem was that she was a slave and because of this, the magic behind the crest that binds her to her master, also punishes the slave for disobeying their master too.

"Ugh..." screamed the young girl as the crest took effect and punished the girl by shocking her. Neither Ulthane nor Kumiho made a move to help her, as they knew that she had to learn that she couldn't say no to master no matter what. What their master says, goes, no matter what. They also knew that in the end this would help her too, teaching her to become a better slave.

Whilst Kumiho didn't act to defend the young girl, she said to her softly, "Raphtalia, he is our Master now, we were brought to fight for him. If we don't, not only do we get punished, but we could be sent back to the Slave Trader. You don't want that do you?"

Raphtalia shook her head at this, seeing how if she was sent back, she could end up dead in a few days.

"See? If you don't attack it, you're the one who gets hurt. And if you're aren't willing to fight, I'll have to send you back to the Slave Trader to find someone who will." Naofumi told her darkly. The young man didn't like the idea of the young girl being hurt like this, he wasn't a total monster, but he needed this to happen. As with her and Kumiho, he wouldn't be able to level up and become strong for the Waves ahead of him. For him to be strong, he had to make his slave strong and to do that, he had to make sure they can fight willingly or not. It was an endless circle where things that they don't want to do have to happen.

Cough! Cough!

Her face was twisted in pain, and her hands were shaking. She steadied her grip on the knife.

Raphtalia settled her nerves, braced herself, and stabbed at the balloon from behind.

"You're weak! Try harder!"

"...?! But!"

She had bounced backwards from her last attack. Recovering, she steadied her footing and lunged forward for another attack, and another, and another until finally her balloon finally popped.

Naofumi: 1 EXP

Raphtalia: 1 EXP

Kumiho: 1 EXP

"Nicely done Raphtalia." Naofumi praised the young girl as he rubbed her head. She shot him a confused look in response. She couldn't understand how he was demanding and forceful one moment, but nice and kind the next moment. But the other two in the room smiled, as they knew that even if you were the toughest of bandit lords or powerful nobles, as long as you treat the slave right, you get more out of them. But at the same time, they had to know when to be trough so that the slave knew who the master was and that they were willing to punish the slave if they disobey their master.

Either way, Naofumi wondered why she was weaker then Kumiho, he thought that Raphtalia would be just as strong as her sister slave. So he checked her stats

Name: Kaisei. Race: Demi-Human Half-Tanuki. Class: Slave. Guild: None.

Level: 1 EXP: 2/60

Status: Slave

Owner: Beloukas

Special Abilities: None.

Magic Affinity: Unknown.

Health Points: 50 Mana Points: 10

Physical Attack: 5 Magic Attack: 5

Physical Defence: 5 Magic Defence: 5

Dexterity: 2

Stamina: 20 Carry Weight: 2 lbs

Elemental status

Fire Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Electricity Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Water Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Light Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Wind Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Ice Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Earth Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Darkness Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

_**Caution!**_

Because of ailment status, the health and stats of the slave is lowered!

To counter this, you'll have to cure the slave for them to fully regain health and stats!

'_Hmm, so she isn't at full strength.'_ Naofumi thought to himself as he saw this warning in his status window. It would mean that if he wanted his slave at full strength, he would have to cure her first. It was a pain, but it was something that had to be done if he wanted to get stronger. Knowing that Crusch taught how to make a cold medicine just in case he needed some and he made some, he could start her healing now before they went out to level up.

"Hey Ulthane, would you mind keeping an eye on the girls for me for a few minutes?" asked Naofumi, "I need to go to my room and get my bag."

"No problem Lord Naofumi." Ulthane told the Shield Hero, where Naofumi left the room and got his bag.

As Naofumi returned, he pulled out a small clay flask as he told, "Raphtalia, drink this, this should help you with your cold."

She looked at the greenish liquid inside the flask for a few seconds, unsure about the looks of it, but she didn't think that her new Master would hurt her, so she obeyed the command. Her ears perked up. She was expecting that whatever this drink was, it would be bitter and weird. It had an acidic and tangy taste, far more bitter than any medicine she had before. It was so good she ended up choking, having to spit the drink to free her throat.

"Damn it, don't waste it, it took me a while to make that!" Her master scolded her, for wasting the medicine that he made, as he gave her another flask filled with another batch of the took awhile for him to make it, and he didn't want the medicine to go to waste. He knew he was being mean to her, but those eyes of her, they were reminding him of _her _and so made him take his feelings out on the poor girl.

When Raphtalia heard this tone of voice, she was scared he would strike her, like her last Master did, so she raised her hands to protect her head. But the hit never came, instead he ordered her. "Make sure to drink this one, that's an order!"

Seeing how this was an order, she uncorked the flask and began to drink the medicine.

"Bleeaaaggghhhh…" Raphtalia winced at this, the medicine was _so _bitter.

"Don't waste good medicine, damn it!" He grabbed the flask and sat by her side. Naofumi would make sure she drank the damn medicine.

"But it's bitter, and it hurts…" She complained, trying to dodge the flask of medicine.

"It only hurts because you're not drinking it!" sneered Naofumi, but seeing the looks that Ulthane and Kumiho were giving him, mainly Ulthane, he realized he had to act another way. So with a sigh, he knelt next to the young girl and said softly, "Listen Raphtalia, you might not like the taste of this medicine, but if you want to get rid of your cold, you need to take it for a few days."

"B,but, it's _so _bitter." repeated Raphtalia.

"I know, but most good medicine is meant to be bitter," explained Naofumi, "from where I came from, the more bitter the medicine is, the better it is. They make it bitter so that they don't take it unless they have to. You do want to get better and stronger don't you."

"Y, yes, I… I do." Raphtalia told her master.

"So you need to drink the medicine, as over the next few days taking it well make you better." Naofumi told her.

"I, I'll drink it." said Raphtalia as she forced herself to drink the bitter medicine.

Wondering if this made any difference to his slave, Naofumi checked her stats once again:

Name: Kaisei. Race: Demi-Human Half-Tanuki. Class: Slave. Guild: None.

Level: 1 EXP: 2/60

Status: Slave

Owner: Beloukas

Special Abilities: None.

Magic Affinity: Unknown.

Health Points: 55 Mana Points: 12

Physical Attack: 7 Magic Attack: 5

Physical Defence: 6 Magic Defence: 5

Dexterity: 3

Stamina: 25 Carry Weight: 2 lbs

Elemental status

Fire Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Electricity Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Water Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Light Attack: 0, Resistance:

Wind Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Ice Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Earth Attack: 0, Resistance: 0. Darkness Attack: 0, Resistance: 0.

Naofumi was glad to see that some of her stats did get better after taking that one of his flasks, so taking a few each do should allow her to be at full strength in a few days. So with a smile he said to her, "See Raphtalia, some of your stats of recovered. So if you take the medicine a few times a day for the next few days, not only will you recover from your cold, but also your stats will return."

Raphtalia couldn't believe it, this medicine not only helped to regain some of her stats, but she also felt a bit better than before. If this medicine could help her heal and regain her strength, she would be willing to take it, no matter how bitter it might be. So with a small smile she said, "I, I understand Master, I'll, I'll take your… medicine."

"Good girl." Naofumi said with a smile, as Kumiho and Ulthane appoverally.

"Master, can I ask why can't you use a weapon?" asked Kumiho, wondering why he brought them to fight for him.

"Because each time I hold a weapon that wasn't a shield, it would shock me and the weapon would fly out of my hands." Naofumi explained darkly, not liking to be reminded that he couldn't hold a weapon.

"So would you use a weapon if you could, even if it keeps shocking you, causing you pain Master?" Kumiho asked her Master carefully, knowing this was a sore subject, but had an idea that might allow him to use a weapon, even if it meant some pain in doing so.

Naofumi had to think about this, it would seem that Kumiho had an idea or he didn't think she would bring it up like this. So the question was would he be willing to go through pain only so that he could use a weapon as well as this damn shield? The answer was so easy, he didn't have to think about it, he would be willing to walk through hellfire bearfoot if he could use a weapon to help him fight and defeat monsters, it was a no brainer answer. "Yes, I would use a weapon even if it meant me going through pain whilst I'm holding it." Naofumi told her without hesitation or second thoughts, "But the problem is that every weapon I have seen through flies out of my hands the moment I hold them."

"Have you heard of wrist blades?" asked Kumiho.

"I think I have," admitted Naofumi, as he thought back on his history and a game he bravely played, "in my world's history, people had blades on their wrists, normally hidden."

"Well in our world Master, Beastmen use them openly here, so I thought you could use them too." Kumiho informed her master.

"Hmm, not a bad idea, but the problem is that I have seen such weapons in this kingdom." said Naofumi.

"Sadly, because these weapons are normally connected to Beastmen, they don't normally sell wrist blades in Melromarc." explained Kumiho.

"Well I think I can help you with that." Ulthane told the Shield Hero.

"You can?" asked Naofumi, "I don't remember seeing a wrist blade around the store."

"Well it's in the workshop in one of the cupboards," explained the blacksmith, "it was a custom made weapon that I made a few years back. But just as I finished it, the owner died in a dungeon, so I kept it locked away seeing how no one wanted it. Give me a minute and I'll get it for you to look at." with that the Maker left the three along for a few moments until he went to get the wrist blade.

After a few minutes of waiting, Naofumi asked with interest, "So tell me, what does a wrist blade look like in this world?"

"Well, it all depends on the wearer and what they want from it," explained the fox slave, "but basically, it is an arm guard that shoots out between one to three blades, either made out of leather or some kind of metal. I remember having an arm guard where it protected my knuckles so they wouldn't bruise, in fact, I added a metal knuckle bits to the arm guard so that it had an added punch to it when I wasn't using the blades. My blades were used for silent kills, so that I could get in close to my target and kill it without anyone else knowing I was there."

The way that Kumiho told him about her weapon, it reminded him of the weapon in the Assassin's Creed games that he heard about back in his world. Why the Assassin's wrist blades to kill their targets without being noticed, he only played the game once. He never was good at it, he was always getting caught on going for the sneak kills, so didn't bother with the game any more.

Just before anything else was said, Ulthane came back with a weapon in his hand. For Kumiho and Raphtalia, they never seen such a weapon before, but for Naofumi, he thought back to a movie back in the 1980's Predator and all the fanart and movies from it since. It was a leather arm guard with a box on it, which had two, three inch blades sticking out of the box. If Naofumi was right about this, the blades should be longer, as they should be retractable blades, popping in and out of the box.

"Is that a Predator's blade?" Naofumi asked in shock, he never thought he would see such a weapon in this world

"It is in fact, although the person who designed this called it the Predator's Guard," explained the blacksmith, "he wanted a weapon that he could attack and defend with, so he came up with this. Although I'm surprised that you would know what this was, seeing how this is a one of a kind weapon."

"You can say that whilst the design is slightly different to make it more of an arm guard, the design is based on a famous weapon back in my world." explained Naofumi, he didn't think they would understand movies and such here, so he didn't mention it. "How is it that a design from my world came up here?"

"Hmm, it is possible that the person who designed it was a Reincarnator." Ulthane told them thoughtfully, upon seeing the confused looks, he went on to explain, "A Reincarnator is someone who died in another world, but they were reborn into this world."

"You're saying that reincarnation really is a thing?" Naofumi asked in shock, "In my world many people believed in such a thing, it helped most who feared death, believing that once they die they would one day be reborn again. But most, like me, were unsure about it, but you're saying that it really is a thing?

"It is Lord Naofumi," Ulthane told him, "I have met a few Reincarnators in my time, most are prideful, arrogant and self-proclaimed geniuses."

"So they are all stuck up assholes." Naofumi summarized, making the girls blush at the way their master was talking.

"More or less yes," Ulthane smirked, "but the person who designed this weapon was different, he cared for the people around him. It was a surprise when he died in a dungeon, but it meant to be one of the most powerful dungeons on one of the floating islands."

"Floating islands?" asked Naofumi in shock.

"Haven't you seen the one in the sky?" asked Ulthane.

"No I haven't," admitted Naofumi, before asking, "why would I look up in the skies when I don't have to? So far I haven't needed to do so seeing all of the monsters are on the ground? And if they are floating, wouldn't it mean they keep on moving, so unless I was looking for them, I wouldn't be seeing them anyway depending when they were in the area."

"True, if I remember right the last floating island, Kurken, passed Melromarc a few nights ago and if I remember right it was cloudy at the time. So you wouldn't have been able to see it even if you were out there." explained Ulthane as he remembered that night, where the three of them were indoors when Kurken florted past the kingdom.

"So how do we get to these floating islands?" asked Naofumi, hoping that if he knew how to get there, he could leave this god forsaken kingdom.

"By an Air Ship of course," the Maker said as if it was the obvious answer, "you would need to take the Dragon's Gate to transport to one of the Air Docks and catch a ship from there."

"Damn it, so I can't get to the floating island just yet." Naofumi muttered to himself, before asking, "Why can't I use the Dragon's Gate to get to the floating islands?"

"Sadly no," Ulthane said with a sigh, "because for whatever magic is used to make the islands float, it interferes with the gates and so they can't transport people to the floating islands. Instead we are forced to use sky ships to get to the islands in the sky."

"I see, so it'll be awhile before I can get to go to one of these islands." Naofumi sighed, before he went back to looking at the wrist blade, "Well let's see if I can really use this weapon or not."

With that Ulthane gave the weapon to hold, as expected, the weapon shocked him as soon as Naofumi held it. But what wasn't expected was that the weapon hit the shield, but instead of dropping onto the floor, the shield sucked the weapon into it and a status window opened in front of him.

_**Predator's Guard… **_

_Equip Bonus:_

Attack 25 (Unmastered)

Defence 10 (Unmastered)

Stealth (small) (Unmastered)

Stun (small - blade shields only) (Unmastered)

Leap (small) (Unmastered)

_Special Effect:_

Blade.

Bleeding - (small)

"HELL YES!" yelled Naofumi, whilst it was his second shield that gave him some attack power, it was his first shield that gave him attack points in the double digits. Now he should be able to defeat those damn Balloon monsters with ease, along with some of the weak levelled monsters too.

"I take it that you got something decent from that." the blacksmith said with a smile.

"Oh yeah sorry about that, I wasn't expecting the shield to suck in the weapon like that." the Shield Hero apologized to Ulthane, who he wanted to keep on the good side of the man.

"No worries, when it comes to the Legendary Weapons, you'll need to expect the unexpected." said Ulthane, "So what did you get." In which Naofumi told the man, where the Maker whistled at this and the two slave girls were unsure how to act, seeing how they weren't sure what the Legendary Shield could do. "I'll be, who knew that this weapon would make such a weapon now. This would mean that you can now put up a fight against the monsters out there."

"Oh only those who are low levels or got low defence." Naofumi said with a sigh.

"Maybe, but at least you can help your slave to leave up easier so that later they can help you." the blacksmith informed Naofumi.

"True." Naofumi admitted, feeling down but at the same time knowing that Ulthane was right.

"So what are your plans now?" asked Ulthane.

"Well I'm going to spend the next few days levelling Raphtalia and Kumiho up before going to do a job for Beloukas." Naofumi told the man.

"So Beloukas has offered you a job?" asked the Maker, "He isn't one to offer work to those who he doesn't really know or trust. You must have made an impression for him to offer you a job."

"It isn't much, just delivering some slaves to a village mayor that's all." explained Naofumi, "I'll be going once I have levelled Raphtalia and Kumiho up a bit, during this time I'll be leaving here so that we can deal with living in the wilderness." Whilst he might have had some camping experience back in his home world when he was younger, however, he knew that camping in this world would be different, more dangerous, so it would be better to deal with seeing what it is like in an area with low level monsters. This way they can learn what to expect and set up plans for nights to make sure they are ready.

"You must really impressed Beloukas, as he wouldn't allow just anyone to do these jobs for him." Ulthane informed the younger man.

"Yeah it's a job, something that I can't turn down seeing how I need the money." Naofumi said with a deep sigh.

"True," admitted Ulthane, seeing how Naofumi would take such a job, "so does this mean you'll won't be back tonight."

"That's the plan." acknowledged Naofumi.

"In that case, once you're finished with Crusch, I would like you to see me before you leave. As I got something for you." Ulthane told the young hero.

"Thanks Ulthane." thanked Naofumi.

Just then Crusch entered the shop, "Master, the product is delivered and the stock you asked me to get is in the forge."

"Thank you Crusch, I appreciate it." the Maker told the lizardwoman, "You can spend the rest of the day with Naofumi and his new slaves."

"Good afternoon Lord Naofumi, I'm glad that you got yourself some slaves that can help you out now." Crusch said with a smile, happy that the one that she and most demi-human's worship had finally got people he can trust, even if they were slaves like her. At least he knew they could be trusted and that's what mattered, "Does that mean you're ready to leave us soon?"

"It is and I would like to thank you for your help over the last week," Naofumi said with a bow, "you and your master are the only two people I know I can trust. Sadly I'll be leaving here tonight, as I got a job but before that I need to level my slaves up and get used to sleeping outdoors in this world."

"In that case Lord Naofumi, let me teach you what I wanted today and allow me to help to try and level your new slaves a few levels today." said Crusch.

"Thanks Crusch," thanked Naofumi, "let's get started." And so with that, Crusch and Naofumi, with Naofumi's slaves, left to go to the fields.

_**To Be Continued!**_

_**Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END:**_ Here ends another chapter, I hope that you have enjoyed the story and if you did, I hope you leave your thoughts about this chapter.

I would like your help with creating a new shield. I need a monster that is able to split into two so that Naofumi can gain a shield that can split into two. The idea for this shield comes from a Captain America shield that I found on the net: marvelcinematicuniverse . fandom f/p/3120688743317524913 (Remove gaps) I hope you can give me a monster that allows me to create this shield. I was thinking of some sort of gemini monster/demon monster/mini-boss/boss, but need ideas for looks.

In fact, as I was thinking about it, there could be Zodiac Weapon Sets from monsters/demons that the heroes could get, what do you lot think? Got the idea when looking when looking up ideas and powers from powerlisting . fandom . com and found Zodiac Empowerment. Let me know of your thoughts.

Now I would like to ask what sort of magic/cores should the heroes have. For Itsuki, I was thinking of angel magic along with some magic that could help him being an avenger of the innocent - if you got some ideas I would like your thoughts. But the thing is I'm not sure what to do for the others, I want them to become stronger than the original heroes, so if you have any thoughts I would like to hear them. I would like ideas for what elements that they should use, as I want them to have an elemental power.

Now I would like more ideas for powers that Naofumi can get for levelling up the Slave Shield other than Enslavement I'm planning to give him. As for the the EXP Bonus part for the shield, for each level the level goes up the bonus exp goes up 1%. I hope you can help with extra powers, I have a few ideas like giving them a Limit Break, where the slaves would have a bar to fill up so that when the bar is full, they can gain bonse effects for a short while, allowing them to become even stronger than normal.

Okay I have learned from that the polls on fanfiction is fucked up, he told me that some people who might have voted one way but meant to to pick another. Because of this, for should Naofumi have sex with a young or older Raphtalia, I'm leaving this open for one more chapter and I go with reviews instead of the poll.

At the moment, going by reviews it's like this:

Older: Review: 18 PM 1

Young: Review: 20 PM 1

So if you have already voted by review you don't have to vote again, but if you voted by poll and not review, you'll need to leave a review to let me know what you want to happen. So you know, if you reviewed in the last chapter your vote won't count in this chapter. Also to keep things fair, I'll be only accepting signed accounts for votes, as just reviews could be used by others to force a result on their side.

The only time I'll be accepting Guest Reviews is if they leave few lines sentences giving their thoughts about the chapter, or why you believe it should be older or younger. If a Guest just says Older or Young or a one liner along those lines, the vote won't be accounted for. For the vote to be accounted, Guests need to leave a decent review. This is the only way I can think that'll make things fair.

Because I was told of this problem, I'm reopening the Lust Shield idea again, to make it fair. So for the next two chapters, the poll if Naofumi should be allowed a Lust Shield well be open. One vote per reader and guest reviews will need to make a decent review apart for yes do a Lust Shield or no don't do a Lust Shield. You'll need to give your thoughts to the chapter or give me ideas for powers and skills the Lust Shield should have. Those who vote with one liners or yes do a Lust Shield or no don't do a Lust Shield won't be counted, these votes will be removed.

This is so that it'll be fair to all, as there could be those who might want to stack the poll to their favour. I'm making it so that guest voters will have to make an effort, as those who are trying to stack the votes won't want to go through all of that trouble. I'm sorry for doing this, but I'm trying to make the voting fair.


	13. Chapter 12

_**Author's Note:**_ I would like to thank the Guest Reviewer for all the ideas that they give me, I don't know if I'll use them all, but I'll be looking into them to see what I can use.

_**Chapter Twelve…**_

_**The Cardinal Hero's Path!**_

_Aultcray Melromarc:_

Whilst Naofumi was sorting out his new slaves, the king was in his study when one of his loyal Shadows entered his room through the shadows. "Your Majesty, I have news about the Shield Hero."

"What news is this?" asked Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, not in the mood to hear anything about the damn Shield Hero. But he knew that if he wanted to keep the damn demon weak, he needed to know whatever he could so that he can counter anything he might do if possible.

"We have learned that the Shield Hero has gotten himself two slaves." the Shadow informed the king.

"What? How?" the king asked, thanks to his eldest daughter's actions, he was able to set things up so that the Shield Hero wasn't able to buy or sell things with ease. Thanks to his foolish daughter's actions of getting someone to hurt her and blaming the Shield Hero, people were more willing to believe that he was in the wrong and so treat him like the scum that the king knew he was.

What he didn't count for was the fact that one of the best blacksmiths in town was willing to help the Shield Demon. The king never liked the blacksmith, seeing how he was a non-human like the demi-humans, but the thing was he was one of the best blacksmiths in the town. He couldn't risk alienating the Maker, as many people go to him for weapons and armour with cores in them. So he couldn't do much to prevent the blacksmith from giving the Shield Hero his slave to help the demon to level up and learn to fight.

But learning that the Shield Hero had two slaves now, he had to find out how, as by law he would need a licence to get one. But first, he had to learn if the Shield Hero broke the law on this as if he did, Aultcray knew he could take the slaves from the demon without a problem. But he had to make sure that the slaves didn't belong to another person of importance. So he had to find out what this Shadow knew before he could take any action.

He couldn't let the Shield Hero become strong, who knows what could happen if he allowed it. Last time the Shield Hero gave those lower demi-humans rights, who knew what this one would do if left alone. If the last Shield Hero left things alone, his sister wouldn't be dead because of the demi-humans, as all of them would have been slaves as they should be. Controlled and knowing their place so that they couldn't go against their betters, just like the demons in this world.

At least with demons, they stayed on their own islands in the air, they hardly ever came to the other lands. But hearing that there have been sightings over the last week was disturbing, they were more powerful than a normal demi-human. Thankfully though, the soldiers in this kingdom and the neighbouring kingdom had armour and weapons able to fight against them thanks to Cores and Stones that give them extra powers.

Either way, the king listened as the Shadow went on to say, "From my contact who works in the slave trade, it would seem that his boss has hired the Shield Hero to deliver a few slaves to the mayor of Lute Village. To help him, the Slave Trader Beloukas has given two slaves to help him, both level one. Beloukas seems to want to see how the slaves raised by a hero will turn out, if it goes as well as he hopes, he might hire the Shield Hero or the other heroes to raise more of his slaves. It's unsure if Beloukas gave him the papers or not to allow the Shield Hero to use slaves or not."

Aultcray was truly unhappy with this news, Beloukas was yet another key figure that the damn Shield Demon got his claws into. Beloukas's uncle was the leader of the main underground slave trade, where underground fights and such took place. Not only that, but many of the nobles bought slaves from Beloukas to take part in the underground fights and such. If he went against him, not only would he have problems with the rest of the underworld, but with the nobles as well.

Both were important for the running of the kingdom, the nobles give the money and status to the kingdom, but they had their own connections Same with the cities underworld city, although their status wasn't what they needed, it was their money and connections, as there were those down there who knew things and were willing to tell the Shadows for a price. This allowed his wife to know what was going on in the criminal world and deal with it when needed. Without them, it would be harder to find and catch criminals, so he couldn't risk upsetting them without a good damn reason. As much as he hated the Shield Demon, he couldn't go after Beloukas, as it would cause so much trouble for him.

All he could do was set it up so that when he does his delivery, one of the hero's would be there to meet and deal with him. As he thought about it, he knew just the hero to send, the one that his daughter had her eye on from the moment she saw him, the Spear Hero.

Aultcray would have to be honest with himself, he didn't like the hero that much, as he was foolish and could easily be manipulated into doing something. But he needed him, so he let his daughter have her fun with him, he knew that when she had enough, she would throw him away and move onto someone who can get her what she wants.

"Have you found anything else about the Shield Hero?" asked the king.

"We're not sure, but a Maker by the name of Atla has come into town today," explained the Shadow, "from what we gathered she has come here on the request of Ulthane to teach the Shield Hero magic."

"What sort of magic is she meant to teach him?" the king asked worriedly, if the demon was going to learn magic, it would make it harder to kill him. So he had to know what sort of magic he was learning, this way he can find a way to counter it if possible, if not train the other heroes with stronger magic.

"No, we don't, from what we know about the Maker, we expect her to teach him something to do with Alchemy, seeing how she is supposed to be a well known but basic kind of alchemist." the Shadow explained to its king.

"Damn it." muttered Aultcray, this was something that the king didn't want to hear. Alchemists are one of the most problematic, as they have a huge range of magic and attacks, they can summon and create things on the fly. With normal fighters, as long as you knew what their style of fighting was, they could more or less make a plan up to deal with them. But with an Alchemist, you could never know what they had up their sleeves, seeing how they can change the surrounding environment to their needs. So they would need a small army to deal with them. Even the ones who are only able to use cores without focus can be problematic, but as long as you keep them from the cores, they can be dealt with as long as they didn't have any other tricks up their sleeves.

"I need you and your team to monitor Atla and the Shield Hero," the king told the Shadow, "I need to know if the Shield Hero has an affinity to alchemy or not. And if he does, I want to know what his level is in it." Aultcray knew that anyone can learn Alchemy, but having an affinity to alchemy would make it easier to learn. Without an affinity to alchemy, it would take longer to learn. The king hoped that the demon didn't have the affinity to alchemy, as he could deal with it, but if he had one, then the king would have to act and find a way to counter this somehow.

"Do you know what skills the other three heroes have?" asked the king, "Do they know about the transformation cores?" He hoped that if they knew about them, he might be able to use them against the Shield Hero should he become a powerful Alchemist.

"The Bow Hero has gotten himself the Angel Core," explained the Shadow, "the Sword Hero knows about them, but she can't decide which one to use, so she decided to learn more about each one before getting one. As for the Spear Hero, your daughter informed him about them, but his response was that he didn't want one, seeing how they would alter his looks. It seems like he doesn't like the idea of anything that could alter his good looks."

"The damn fool." muttered the king, unable to believe the Spear Hero would give up such power because he didn't want to alter his looks.

"If you don't mind Your Majesty, but I have an idea for the Spear Hero." the Shadow informed the king, who waved them on to explain, "We can design him with a new armour that has the Stinger and Hounds Cores, along with some Magical Stones. So just as long as the Shield Hero is only able to learn the basics of alchemy, those skills should be able to deal with the Shield Hero."

"And if the demon learns more advanced alchemy?" asked the king, wondering if the Shadow had any plans for this.

"We have the other two heroes help the Spear Hero, with using transformation cores along with Magical Stones in their armour." the Shadow shared their thoughts with their king, "Although with the Bow Hero, he liked the Angel Transformation Core, as it showed his sense of justice, so getting him with other transformation cores might be a problem. So we might have to give him some armour to go with his Angel Core. As for the Sword Hero, she just isn't sure which cores she should get. So the way I see it, Your Majesty, when the time comes to reward them for their actions, we can give them not only coins but these cores and armour. Whilst we only give the Shield Hero his basic coins."

Aultcray had to admit this might be the best course of action, as much as he hated to admit it, seeing how he was meant to be the Wise King Melromarc. But he knew that even the wisest of people would need help and ideas from others, so this Shadow's idea helped him a lot.

"Thanks for informing me about Atla and the idea what to do," the king thanked the Shadow, "for now, monitor the demon and let me know what level he has in alchemy. Not only that but the moment that you learn when he goes for this mission for Beloukas, send one of the heroes to try and stop him. It doesn't matter if they succeed or not, just the fact that they learn of the Shield Hero's actions is good enough. Making it so that they wouldn't want to work with him would be better."

"I understand Your Majesty, if there's nothing else, I shall take my leave." said the Shadow, where the king only waved them off, leaving him to his thoughts.

Aultcray had hoped he could keep the damn Shield Hero weak, allowing lies about the hero to spread, making it so that people wouldn't want to serve or deal with him. But he had forgotten about the damn Maker in the town, their race didn't care about good nor evil. All they cared about was keeping the balance and was willing to work for anyone as long as they didn't try to destroy the world or hurt their kind. Because of this, the Shield Hero was getting stronger than the king would have liked, not only that, but Aultcray wasn't sure what to do to keep Shield Hero from getting stronger.

As of right now, Aultcray knew that he did what he could do to keep the Shield Hero from getting any stronger, spreading lies to the other kingdoms and making it so that it was hard to do jobs and make a living. All he could do right now is hope for the best, hoping that what he has done so far was enough to prevent the demon from getting any stronger. Seeing there wasn't much more he could do right now, Aultcray went back to running the kingdom and finding a way to get rid of the Shield Demon without anyone finding out it was him.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Motoyasu Kitamura:_

Motoyasu Kitamura aka the Spear Hero was standing in front of the Job Board in the Guild Hall within Melromarc looking for his first job. It had been a week since Myne, now known as Malty S Melromarc the First Princess of Melromarc, informed everyone that the damn Shield Hero raped her. Even thinking of it still made Motoyasu angry, he wanted nothing more but to kill the damn bastard. But he knew that as he was right now and with the high defences that the Shield Bastard had, he would have no chance at killing him.

Which is why for the last week, he had been visiting areas around the kingdom with high levelled monsters to defeat so that he could level up and gain new spears. Sure the First Princess, who preferred to be called Myne, told him about these transformation cores that would allow him to transform into a monster himself, allowing him great power and strength. The thing was that he prided himself on his looks and didn't like the idea of changing them, so he decided not to get any, but he was thinking about getting the Magical Stones and other Cores once he levelled up a bit more and had the money to buy them.

Now that he and his group's levels were between fifteen and twenty, him being level twenty, he decided it was the best time to leave the area seeing how it was getting hard to level up. As for his group though, there was a change to it, there were only seven instead of five of them - other than Motoyasu, the group was full of women. The man that was in the group before left for some reason, maybe he didn't like it that other than the Spear Hero, he was the only man in the group and the women in the group seemed to only have eyes for the Legendary Hero and left.

What Motoyasu didn't know was that Myne and the other women forced him out of the group, as they had plans for Motoyasu and they didn't want anyone to interfere with their plans. It helped that most of the women liked that with the Spear Hero, they could sit back and Motoyasu would do all the work. He would kill all the monsters and they would get the experience points. The only time they would be forced to do anything was if they faced a powerful monster and the Spear Hero needed support in the fighting.

Either way, Motoyasu had to admit that when he was murdered by the less likely person that would do such a thing, he wasn't expecting to end up having this kind of life. He would be living in a world where everything was like a game and a group of women who wanted to be with him, those who didn't seem to mind sharing him either. To Motoyasu, death was the best thing to happen to him and he was going to enjoy it as much as he could.

There were many jobs on the Guild's Job Board, he wasn't sure which job to take. It wasn't until Myne came over and picked a job for him. "Lord Motoyasu, why not take this job?" Myne asked him as she gave him a Job Card after reading it, "It's a job to help a village a few days from here, south-west of this town called Lerno Village. It would look like they are suffering from famine and want someone to help them. I would think that it'll help you get to be known better if you were able to help them somehow."

What she didn't tell him was that with her by his side, not only would it help him, but would help her too. Show her in a good light for someone who helped the hero who helped a village out of famine. It would help her to become queen one day.

Not realizing Myne's true intentions, only thinking that people would look up to him and gain more fame and possibly gain more women, the Spear Hero said, "Sure, I can't see any harm, it sounds like a simple enough quest. It'll allow me to see what I should expect in future quests. With luck, I can get some material to either gain new spears or strengthen up my old ones."

You see, the way that he strengthens his weapons were in one of three ways, the first was smelting, as by giving a spear a certain ore, it can increase the power and ability of his weapon. But sadly though, like in the game back in his world, not all ores are compatible with his spears. Should he use a wrong ore with one of his spears, it would reset the spear to the beginning level. So he knew it was best to make sure that an ore fits with the spear before levelling it too much. The second and third ways he would Spear Enchantment and Status Enchantment, where he would use materials to give his weapons new abilities and better stats.

Either way, after registering the request, Motoyasu and his girls left the guild to help the villagers. On the way out, they passed Renka and Itsuki coming in, with a few quick words with each other, where Renka sarcastic remarked that she hoped that the girls didn't kill him like the girls back in his world. Motoyasu sweated at this and made the smart move of leaving before he upset the Sword Hero somehow.

It would be about a week later before his task at the village would be finished. From his time back in his world playing Emerald Online, he remembered a quest called Recovery of the Miracle Seed Quest. The seed meant to grow into a huge fruit tree, where the seeds from the tree would spread and create more fruit trees, not only trees but other plants that bear fruit.

After hearing whispers that there was a dungeon fitting the description of the one from his game, he believed that the seed needed to help these people was there. So he left to find out, as long as nothing changed and new high levelled monsters were there, he knew he could in and out of the dungeon easy enough.

What the fool didn't realize was that whilst the seed and dungeon were the same as in his game, the aftermath of the seed wasn't the same. What he wouldn't learn was that whilst the seed did grow into plants, they made things worse than make things better, that the seed created monsters instead of edible fruit.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Itsuki Kawasumi:_

The seventeen-year-old Bow Hero was having a great time in this new world, he was having a much better life than he had back in his own world. He wasn't bullied by his father nor those at his school, instead, people listened to him, hanged onto his every word. It was different, nice in fact. The only thing that he missed about his world was his mother, he was worried if she would be okay now that many believed him dead, wondering who would look after her now. He hoped that she would be okay.

Over the last week, the young teen thought about what he should do during the times between the Waves. He knew that he had to level up and become stronger, but other than that he wasn't sure what to do. He could go on quests sure, but he has been given great power and he believed that he should use it to make things better. In fact, after learning what Naofumi did to the First Princess and how he tricked Ranka into having sex with him, Itsuki knew that to make him pay, to face justice, he had to become strong enough to get past Naofumi's defence and make the Shield Hero pay for his crimes.

In fact, as he was training to become stronger to be able to get past Naofumi's defences, he realized what he could do, help to bring justice to this world. They still had slavery, seeing how Naofumi had someone's slave to help him fight, and they had lords and nobles who made things awful for the innocent and those who couldn't defend themselves. Remembering how he was treated back in his world, he decided he could use his new power to do what no-one did for him, bring justice for these people and free the slaves.

Because of this, he spent the last week levelling up and gaining materials to make his bow stronger. For him, it was all about getting the rare weapons and strengthening himself up. Sure he can use ore and use status enchantment, but he didn't use them often, as he believed that finding rare weapons and levelling himself up was better. So he was using the defeated monster to make himself stronger and faster in the last week, mainly working on his attack speed and attack points. The reason for this was because he wanted to become strong enough to bring Naofumi to justice, something he couldn't do with weak attack points.

Now that he and his group were between the levels of thirteen and nineteen, with Itsuki being level nineteen. When he wasn't doing missions and saving the innocent, he was going to use his knowledge from playing Dimension Wave to find all the rare weapons. He hoped no one in this world found them before he could, as he knew if he had any chance against Naofumi, he would need powerful weapons to get past his defences.

Now there were these cores, sure they won't in Dimension Wave, but then again he knew that not everything was going to the same, that there was going to be some differences to what he knew of. Like demons, cores and such, he was hoping that they would help him in getting strong in this world.

At first, the Bow Hero thought that after learning about the Transformation Core and getting the Angel Core, that would be all he needed, other than his bow. That they would be enough power to bring justice to this world, seeing how if his party member prayed to him as he fought, he would get stronger. But in the last few days his companions told him that depending on which kingdom he helps, there'll be lords, nobles, even royals could come after him, to prevent him from bringing his justice to this world. That he would have to hide who he was so that he wouldn't get caught.

This got him thinking about a person back in his world, Robin of Loxley or as he was better known as Robin Hood. It was said that he was once a highly skilled archer and swordsman. He was born a noble, but after returning home from war and finding his home taken over and his land that he once lived being ruled by an unjust ruler the Sheriff of Nottingham, he became an outlaw. He became an outlaw to bring peace and justice back to his land.

No-one really knows the true story seeing how the retelling of his story changed many times, but one thing stayed true, he fought to bring justice to his land. This is what Itsuki wanted, to bring justice to the world. To do this he realized that he would have to break a few laws sometimes if he wanted to bring true justice to this world.

To do this, Itsuki knew that he couldn't use his Angel Core as much as he would have liked, as it would make him stand out too much. Which case he decided he would get a new core once he got the money, he would take the form of one of the Robin Hood characters back in his world. This would be a fox. They made Robin Hood a fox because of how sly and cunning he meant to be, it was something that Itsuki knew he had to become if he wanted to bring justice to this world.

So after a week of training, he decided it was time to start his plan to bring justice to this world, so he went to the Guild Hall to see if there was a job that met his needs. As he arrived at the guild, he met up with Renka and her team. It looked like her companions were all female now, no males at all. As they entered the Guild, Itsuki was going to ask about this, but they ran into Motoyasu and his female companions.

They had a few words in greeting, but after a few moments, Renka sarcastic remarked that she hoped that the girls didn't kill him like the girls back in his world. It would seem that after learning about what Naofumi did and how he used her, she became untrusting and hateful towards men it would seem. The Bow Hero saw Motoyasu sweat at this, where he made the smart move of saying goodbye and leaving before he upset the Sword Hero more.

This was another reason that Itsuki wanted to get stronger, he wanted to show the young woman in front of him that not all men were like where she came from nor like Naofumi. He wanted to bring justice to her so that she could live a carefree life without thinking that there was no justice in life. He knew it would be hard for her to believe that he didn't want anything from her, but he'll prove to her that not all men are like them.

"Renka, you do know that you shouldn't treat Motoyasu like that." Itsuki told the heroine as Motoyasu left the guild, whilst their companions went to look for jobs for them.

"Why not?" Renka asked with a sneer, "He is nothing more than a womanizing pervert, who'll do anything to get into a female's neckers."

"I can't deny that," admitted the Bow Hero, "but that's the way he is. He doesn't deny this, sure he talks himself up and such to do so, but he doesn't hide the fact he's a womanizer. I don't think he can hide it, even if he tries. He isn't like Naofumi, who only pretends to care to get what he wants, you know what he wants off the bat. Only those dim enough would think otherwise."

Renka had to admit that the Bow Hero had a point, Motoyasu was an open book, one they could tell what he is after. But still, "It doesn't mean that I don't think he is a perverted bastard. He and Iwatani are why I don't trust men."

"That might be true," admitted Itsuki, "but unlike Naofumi we know we can trust him to do the right thing. He seems to be the type who's loyal to his friends and would do the right thing, I don't think he is able to be able to betray those he believes are an ally. You might not like him, but until we deal with the Waves, unless he proves otherwise, we have to work with him. Afterwards, we can part ways and never interact with each other again if that's what you want."

As much as Renka hated to admit it, she could see his point, the king said that heroes needed to work together if they wanted to defeat the waves. But if that was the case, "What about Naofumi? Do we have to deal with that bastard?" the young heroine asked darkly, not liking the idea of working with him.

"No, we don't," Itsuki told her, "he proved himself that we can't trust him. Even if we could trust him, what can he do to help with defeating the Waves? He is a Shielder, the weakest person there is. How would he be able to help us in the Waves when he is unable to fight? We just ignore him when the Waves happen, we let him do whatever he wants and we deal with the main problem by defeating the Waves before anyone can get hurt."

"I can agree with that." Renka agreed to this.

"Listen, I know you don't trust men at the moment, but I was wondering if we can get something to eat after we finish here?" asked Itsuki, "I would like to talk to you about this world. Me, you and Motoyasu all seem to have a different interpretation of this world, all because of the games that we played back in our world. For me, I have already seen a few different things that won't in my version of this world that I know, so I wanted to see if anything is different to you and compare notes so we can make out a plan of attack or at the very least understand the changes if possible."

Renka thought about this for a moment agreeing to this, "Sure, I've also seen a few differences too and I would like to swap stories. How about we go to the tavern and talk about this."

"That would be fine," agreed the Bow Hero, "let me see if there are any jobs going that I like and I'll meet you at the tavern in a short while."

"Okay but come by yourself." Renka told Itsuki.

"No problem." the Bow Hero agreed, understanding that he didn't trust him or his male companions. With that, the two-part for now as Itsuki went to see if his companions found a job for the group. As he came to his companions, he asked, "So have any of you found any jobs that we can do yet?"

"Matter of fact, I think I might have Sir Bow Hero." a man in plate armour by the name of Mald told him, "There's a job in the next kingdom that is asking for some aid, it would seem that they are having a hard time of it. I have asked around, and it would seem that the Lord of the Land has heavily raised the taxes of his people and they are having a hard time. There are rumours that there's a resistance being built, to make a better land. So I was thinking that we could go to the land and show him some of the justice that you were talking about."

"Hmm…" hummed the young hero, as he thought about this. He had to admit he didn't like how people bullied the weak and by the looks of it, the Lord was doing that to his people by raising their taxes so much that they can't do much.

He knew that there were people like that back in his world and it sickened him, he didn't like the idea of this. But at the time he was weak, a nobody, someone who was unable to do anything to change things. But it was different now, he had supernatural powers now thanks to his bow, now he had the strength to change things to make sure that the weak wasn't walked all over upon. He can make a difference here, unlike when he was back in his world.

"You're right Mald, we should help this resistance," Itsuki said with a smile, finally able to help people, "we spend a few more days here to level up so that we're strong enough to deal whatever we might face there." Then remembering his plans, he said, "Listen, guys, I've to talk to Lady Renka for a bit, so if you don't mind, I'll leave you lot to get things ready for us and I'll meet up with you lot later."

"Understood Lord Itsuki." the Bow Hero's companions said at once, where a few moments later Itsuki left the guild to go to the tavern.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Renka Amaki:_

The sixteen-year-old Sword Hero wasn't having a great week, she had hoped that now that she died and was brought to this new world, she would have a better time of it all. At first, she thought she did, she seemed to have found a guy that was a great and honest guy, someone she thought she could settle down with. In fact, she gave herself to the person she thought would be there for her, someone special.

But that was the worst thing she could ever have done, as the very next night he raped the First Princess and told her that he didn't really care for her. The truth was that he pretended to care about her so that he could fuck her. At first, she wasn't sure about it all, but she didn't have any reason for the First Princess to lie about this. What kind of woman would lie about being raped?

The only problem that she had was that she knew that Naofumi had the ability that made it so that he couldn't get drunk, so she had to ask the First Princess about this. The Princess couldn't explain it, all she knew was that when he tried to attack her, the Shield Hero was drunk. All she could tell her was that the Shield Hero had found a way to fake his abilities. When asked how it was possible seeing how they only been there for a short while, the Princess explained that there were those who were very loyal to the Shield Hero, namely the demi-humans, and they were willing to do whatever the Shield Hero wanted.

So it was possible that Shield Hero learned about this somehow and got the demi-humans to get what was needed to fake his abilities. Other than that, she couldn't tell her why the Shield Hero was drunk, as all she knew was that he was. Renka believed the Princess, seeing how she had no reason to lie about this. She was upset that Naofumi would do such a thing, was he trying to make him look cooler than he really was?

Whatever the case, any trust left she had for men was ruined for her, she didn't know if she could ever fully trust one ever again. Not after how Naofumi did. Sure she needed to trust Itsuki and the womanizing ass Motoyasu to a degree if she wanted to survive the Waves, but outside of that, she would be very wary around them. It would be the same with any men that hire her for a job, she would only trust them so far.

Now because of this, she decided to get rid of all of the men in her group, fearing that they would one day do the same to her or one of the women in the group. Renka replaced the men with women that she found.

Now like the other two heroes, she too spent the last week levelling up and getting stronger. Although, whilst she did have level up with her companions, as the loner that she was, she trained alone a lot too. When her companions were resting or doing something else, she would be levelling up and getting stronger by herself. She wasn't stupid, she knew that if she allowed the waves to continue and didn't stop them, she could end up dead with the rest of this world, something she didn't like the idea of. So she knew she had to make sure they could protect her by keeping the normal monsters at bay whilst she and the other heroes dealt with the bosses.

Now like the other heroes, she had her own belief as to how to get stronger, for her, she had three ways to get stronger. To get stronger, Renka believed that she had to level up her weapons to do so and for that, there were three key components for her to do this. The first component was Mastery, more she used the same weapon over and over again or giving it monster materials, it would level up its proficiency and so make the weapon even stronger.

The next two components go hand to hand with each other, energy transfer and rarity., as they allowed her to maximise the weapon that she was using. So once she maxed out the weapon to its maximum level, she could reset the weapon so that it would become level one again by unleashing the energy that it gained to get the max level. In doing so, she would gain Energy Points, where she could either transfer it into another weapon or back into the same weapon again.

By resetting a weapon and levelling it up by using the Energy Points, or giving it monster materials or using it over and over again, it improves the rarity of the weapon. In doing so, she would gain new abilities or make one of the other weapons stronger. But there is the risk that if it failed, the mastery points would be reset to zero and she would have to start all over again. Because of this, her plans were to level up only a handful of swords that were already strong and improve that sword's rarity until she found a better sword to use. She didn't see the point levelling up all of her swords, as she only saw it as a waste of time, so she only levelled up a few swords that she thought were important and had useful skills. So for the last week, she had been gaining new swords and levelling up the best one to make her stronger.

Over the last week, her companion got to the levels between fifteen and twenty, whilst she became level twenty-three. The reason that she was higher than her companions, and even the other heroes, was that during the nights or when they finished training together, she would head out and do extra training by herself. There were two reasons for this, first, she believed that her companions held her back, that she could become stronger by defeating monsters by herself.

The other reason was that she wanted, no she needed to get stronger, she wanted to show the world that she could be as strong if not stronger than any male hero. Not only that, but she also wanted to become strong so that no one, not even those like Naofumi, could use her again. In fact, one of her companions informed her about something called Monster Cores, where they would give you abilities of that monster or allow you to transform into a certain monster. The thing was she didn't know what monster she would like to use, as she knew that there were so many different monsters that she was used to. So she decided to wait for a while before deciding which one to use.

With her group at a decent enough level, that they can deal with almost anything that they might face, so today she and her companions went to the guild. She was looking for a mission that would test her strength, to see if they were ready to face the Waves of Calamity. On the way to the guild, she met up with Bow Hero Itsuki who was about to enter the guild. After greeting each other, they entered the guild where they met up with Motoyasu and companions who Renka saw were full of women. One is the First Princess.

Renka hated Motoyasu, she might only be around him for a short while, but she knew one thing for sure - he was a pervert, only thinking about ways to fuck women. In a way, he reminded her of Naofumi, but unlike Iwatani he wasn't good at hiding the fact.

Upon seeing them, Motoyasu called out, "Hey Itsuki, Renka, how are you two doing?"

"I'm good," said Itsuki, "I've come with my companions to find a mission to go to."

"Same here," said Motoyasu, "in fact, I'm leaving to help a village which has a food shortage, I'm hoping to get the seed I know about to help them. The seed is meant to grow anyway and bear fruit, which should help the villagers."

"Ah I see, I wish you luck." Itsuki wished the Spear Hero luck.

"So how are you Renka? What are you up to?" asked Motoyasu.

"I'm good Kitamura." Renka told him coldly.

"Why are you so cold to me?" Motoyasu asked in shock, seeing how he hadn't done anything against her.

"You're a pervert," Renka told him, "just like Iwatani. Trying to figure out how to fuck a woman. I have no idea why you're with him Princess, not after what Iwatani did to you?"

"Lady Renka, Lord Motoyasu is nothing like the Shield Hero," Myne defended her chosen hero, "he cares and defends us. He hasn't laid a hand on us. He really does care for us, unlike the Shield Hero."

Motoyasu was glad that Myne defended him before he could say anything, he hated the thought that Renka thought of like that damn Iwatani. Sure he likes his women and would like to be in their beds at night, but he would never, never force himself onto others. If they say no or they don't show him any interest, he would either back off or try to impress them, but he would _**never**_ rape someone.

"He only defends you so that he can fuck you." Renka told her, "He may act like a good guy, but deep down he is nothing more than a womanizing pervert who wants to fuck one or all of you."

"I'm nothing like that." Motoyasu defended himself.

"Oh really? Please remind me, why did a woman try to kill you?" Renka asked with a smirk, as she reminded him what he told her when they first met.

Whilst it was only over a week since it happened, Motoyasu rubbed his side at the thought, he didn't know how long before he would get over that. He wanted to say something about this, but he wasn't sure if he said anything, it wouldn't make things worse and have Renka turn on him even more.

Just as Motoyasu and his companions were about to leave, Renka called out, "Listen, if you finally see the scum that Kitamura is and decide to leave but want to help in fighting the Waves, you can always come to me." None of them said anything, they just left.

As Motoyasu left the guild, Itsuki told her that she shouldn't have treated the Spear Hero the way she did. Sure he was a womanizer and a pervert, but he was nothing like Naofumi, that he could be trusted to do the right thing. That Motoyasu was loyal to his friends and would do the right thing, he didn't think that the Spear Hero is able to be able to betray those he believes are an ally.

The Bow Hero told her that she might not like him, but until they deal with the Waves, unless he proves otherwise, they have to work with him. Afterwards, they could part ways and never interact with each other again if that's what she wants.

As much as Renka hated to admit it, she could see his point, the king said that heroes needed to work together if they wanted to defeat the waves. But the problem was Naofumi, how could they work with him after what he has done, how could they trust him. Itsuki told her that they shouldn't work with the bastard, seeing how he has proved himself that they couldn't trust him. Even if they could trust him, what can he do to help with defeating the Waves? He was after all only a Shielder, the weakest person there is. How would he be able to help us in the Waves when he is unable to fight? They'll just ignore him when the Waves happen, letting him do whatever he wants and they'll deal with the main problem by defeating the Wave Bosses before anyone can get hurt.

This was something Renka could agree to. She just hoped that Naofumi stayed away from them whilst they were fighting in the Waves, she didn't know if she could stand back and do nothing.

Just as she was about to see what jobs there were, Itsuki wanted to talk about this world. Seeing how she, he and Motoyasu all seem to have a different interpretation of this world, he wanted to see what her interpretation of this world was and he would tell her of his. As it would seem that he saw a few differences already. He was right, she too saw a few differences too, so it would be nice to see if these changes were from Itsuki's version he knew of or not.

So agreeing to this talk, Itsuki said they should meet at the tavern once they have finished here at the guild. The Sword here was more than happy with this, but she told him to come alone, which the Bow Hero agreed to. So with this the two parted ways, where Renka looked around to see if she could find a job. Sure she could check the notice board, but she knew from her games that sometimes if she listened to NPCs, she might learn of missions that were not normally on the board for some time. Not only that, but going directly to the NPC, you might get a better reward than the ones on the board.

It was the right thing to do, as she learned about a dragon that seemed to be a bother to a village a few days from here. If she and her companions could deal with the dragon with ease, she knew that they would be ready for the next Wave. So after talking to these people and learning a bit more about the dragon, she offered to deal with the dragon which the people were glad to accept, seeing how she was a hero and all. They thought that if she couldn't deal with it, nobody could.

Renka had to control herself and not to be too rude to these people, seeing how they were men, but once they got the details Renka and her group left the guild where Renka went to the tavern to meet Itsuki, whilst her party got ready to leave town and deal with the dragon. Gaining new weapons and armour, along with getting more potions and such.

What Renka didn't realize was that the people who sent her to kill the dragon had an alternative motive, you see the dragon was protecting a group of demi-human children as if it was their parent. They have been trying for years to get these children so they could make them into slaves, but everyone that they sent to deal with the dragon ended up dead. So hearing that the Four Cardinal Heroes were summoned, they hoped to track one of them into killing the damn beast. So using the cover story of how the village wanted someone to deal with the dragon, which they really did, as they wanted to gain the eggs and treasure along with getting rid of the dragon who was scaring away visitors. So after making a deal with the villagers, they went in search of a Cardinal Hero to deal with the dragon. Now seeing that they found the Sword Hero, they hoped that she was able to defeat the beast so that they could get the damn demi-humans.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Naofumi Iwatani:_

As he was walking out of town, he heard rumbling behind him, looking behind him he saw that Raphtalia was holding her stomach. It was Kumiho who made a comment about this, "Master, before we go and level up, can we get something to eat? I don't think Raphtalia has eaten in a while?"

She was not worried in the slightest about talking out of turn to the Shield Hero, but she was worried for the young girl who was now her sister in arms to protect her Lord. If she hadn't eaten for a while or done anything about that cough, she might be too hungry and weak to fight and that could lead to the girl's death. This would be bad for her Master seeing how he spent money that she was informed he didn't have much of on him. It was her job to make sure that the Shield Hero was protected and taken care of any way possible, even if it meant stepping in when possible to point out problems that might arise, even if it meant she would be punished for it, what she highly doubt it that would happen given the information that she got beforehand about him.

Raphtalia was almost pale as a ghost from what Kumiho said, she only been a slave for about a month or so, but she learned enough over that time. She knows that her masters have varied with some good and some bad, and was wondering if she could ask for food but was hesitant to ask before Kumiho said what she was thinking. What made her terrified that she might get punished for asking for someone else or even asking out of turn, she hoped that if she did she would not be punished or mistreated like her previous master. But given that this was their God and saviour, she knew she was safe with him as long as she did everything he wanted of her.

Naofumi totally forgot about this, from buying his slaves, getting them items and going to see Ulthane and getting Crusch, he forgot that he was going to feed his new slaves after buying them. "I'm sorry you two, I forgot that I said that I would buy you some food before we go and level up. So let's go to the tavern and get something to eat."

"Lord Naofumi, I think it would be wise if we go back to my Master's place and get something to eat there." Crusch said respectfully, "You see, My Lord, demi-humans aren't allowed to be in the taverns in this town."

This was the first that Naofumi heard about this, then again there was a notice in front of the door at the tavern, but seeing how he couldn't read the language of this world, it wasn't surprising he didn't know. It's not like he and Crusch ate at any of the taverns in the town together, they normally ate at Ulthane's place. But then again, what is the worse they could do to him, throw him out, make him pay double? Most taverns already do that, the tavern that he goes to only serve him as they care more about coins than anything else, so as long as he paid they didn't care who he was. It helped that they force him to pay more than anyone else in the place.

"What are they going to do? Throw me out, make me pay double?" Naofumi asked her, "Been there done that, it's not like they like me anyway, at least this way I am actually giving them a reason to hate me. Come on, let's get something to eat."

Seeing Raphtalia and Kumiho were his slaves, they followed him anyway, it wasn't like they could do much else but to do so. Crusch though stayed behind for a few seconds, worried what might happen. She was worried that a fight might break out, but then again, it wasn't like Lord Naofumi couldn't handle himself, over the last week he had shown that he was able to do so very well. She had no reason to worry that he would get hurt. She was just worried about how people would treat him afterwards, his reputation was already bad, this could make things worse.

But seeing how he walked towards the nearby tavern without a care, she realized that he no longer cared about his reputation. Instead, it would seem that he was willing to give them a reason to hate them, instead of just something the old Shield Hero did. He would be hated for his actions, not someone else's who died hundreds of years ago. Whilst she might not like it, seeing as he meant to be the Shield Hero, she could fully understand where he was coming from.

Once they were in the tavern and headed towards a dark corner of the place, people were giving them all dark looks, a waitress came along and said. "Sir, you do know…" but before she could finish, Naofumi glared at her and said, "I do not care what you're going to say. Hand me the damn menu and get lost, you're just going to overcharge me anyways so I'm not going to hear any of your crap."

As the waitress looked like she was about to say something before Naofumi gave her a dark look, "Just pay me double for their meals as you normally do with me. Or does your boss no longer want my money?" He said in a dark tone showing off his annoyance and making her take a step back at the threatening atmosphere he started to admit.

"I, I understand sir…" the waitress said with a bit of fear in her voice, "Wh, what would you like to order?"

"I'll have three basic meals and I'll also have whatever that kid over there is eating." Naofumi told the waitress.

"Very well sir. That will be fifty bronze coins." the waitress told him.

Here Naofumi gave her a silver coin, but as many times before when he paid a silver because he didn't have the right coins, he didn't get any change. Naofumi just sighed at this as the others had differing looks, Kumiho Look angry and annoyed, Crush looked sad and disappointed and Raphtalia just looked on at this with confusion not understanding what's going on.

"What Wrong?" Raphtalia asked, not understanding what's going on as she looked at the other slaves' expressions.

"Let's just say I have my problems with this kingdom because of the last Shield Hero, and because he isn't around, they are taking their hate and anger out on me." Naofumi told his new slave, he didn't have to tell her everything and it wasn't a lie either. He suspected the reason he was famed for rape was that the bitch hated what the Shield Hero represents, whatever that was and was more than happy to dirty his name, even if they don't know fuck all about him.

"Humm, yeah that kind of sounds right," Kumiho said, "Raphtalia you see the last Shield Hero gave us demi-humans protection and rights allowing us to make a kingdom for ourselves against the humans. It was thanks to his help that we have our own capital and freedom there, the king of this country hates us demi-humans because of the war that they won recently."

After hearing that they mostly waited quietly for their food to arrive, he saw that Raphtalia was looking all around the place. Like normal people were casting glances in his direction while they whispered among themselves.

Oh, how much Naofumi hated this damn kingdom.

"I… Is it really okay for me to eat?" Raphtalia suddenly asked the Shield Hero, looking up at him with a confused look on her face.

'_Is it really that odd that I would want to feed her a meal?' _Naofumi thought to himself, but aloud he asked, "I did say I would feed you." Naofumi reminded her, "You're my slave so why shouldn't I feed you? Not only that but I need you and Kumiho at full strength. Having you underfeed and weak won't help me out." Naofumi told her simply.

Before she could say more, the waitress returned with their food. Whilst Kumiho and Crusch ate their food without a problem, Raphtalia just stayed at her food for a few moments, before saying, "Are you, are you sure that I can eat this?"

"I wouldn't have brought it if I wasn't sure," Naofumi reinsured her, "like you I told you, I need you and Kumiho at full strength and eating is the best way to make that happen, that and giving you medicine to make you better. Now eat the damn food, if you walk around all skinny like that, you'll just die on me and I can't have that happen. At least not right after I got you."

Raphtalia hesitated for a moment more before finally attacking her meal bare-handed.

'_How long has she been a slave?'_ Naofumi asked himself seeing her bad table manners. For someone to have such manners, she must have been a slave for years. As he was thinking of this he saw her starting to choke on some of the food that she ate and slid over some water that she gracefully gulped down. Then he began to eat his meal, which was like aways tasteless.

As he was eating his meal, he remembered something that he wanted to tell his slaves when he got his new shield, "So you know, unless I say otherwise I don't want anyone to know about any of my Shields especially about my new shield that I just got. That's an order."

Raphtalia and Kumiho could feel the slave magic working on them, making it so that they can't say anything about his new shield. Not even here with him being here, as there were people who might overhear them talking about it. "Can I ask why you don't want people to know that you have that sort of shield?" asked Kumiho.

"This damn town already thought of me as some kind of demon," explained Naofumi, "if they learned that I have this kind of shield, they'll believe even more that I'm a demon. As they wouldn't like the idea that I could get stronger, they would fear what I could do. So I don't want anyone to learn about it just yet."

"Understood Master/Lord Naofumi." the three slaves said at once.

"Now, Raphtalia, Kumiho, as I told you when I first got you, I'll be doing whatever I have to survive in this world." Naofumi reminded his two slaves, then in a lower voice so no one but the three of them could hear. It helped that the place was full that day and it was noisy, making it hard for people to hear them. "In this case, it'll mean that to gain money and other supplies, I'm going to become a bandit, with your help."

"Bu, but Master… you're meant to be, meant to be a hero," Raphtalia said though her coughs, "you're… you're meant to save people, save the world, not… not hurt people, stealing from them."

"I'll be saving the world, just not the people, at least not for free." Naofumi told them, "I can't let the world end, seeing how I'm on it and I don't want to die in this godforsaken world, so I'll save it but anything else is secondary. The way I see it, during the Waves, unless it suits me and I get something out of it or I'm getting paid or there is no other option, I let the town guards and the other heroes be the real heroes. During the Waves, unless we have something else to do, our goal is to deal with the Wave Boss and end it as soon as possible. Outside of the Waves, we'll train, level up and do whatever to, get stronger and survive the next Wave."

Raphtalia was about to say something, but her master held his hand out to stop her and said, "Listen Raphtalia, you might not like the way I'm planning to do things, but remember what I told you when I got you. if you don't pull your weight, slow me down or get in my way I won't hesitate to sell you back to the Slave Trader and buy someone who'll be able to do what needs to be done."

Crusch was saddened at how Lord Naofumi was acting, but she could understand where he was coming from, even if she didn't like it. This kingdom was forcing him from a hero into a bandit so that he could get the things that he would normally get if he was treated normally, so it was expected that he would want his slaves to be able to do what was needed of them. So it wasn't surprising to hear him tell his slaves that he would sell them back to the Slave Trader if they didn't pull their weight or unwilling to do what was needed of them.

She knew that most seasoned slaves wouldn't have any problems following such orders, but she was worried about young Raphtalia. She was young and got ideas about right and wrong, she didn't know that as a slave, she should forget such things, as they no longer apply to her. She just hoped that the kingdom didn't kill off all of Naofumi's humanity, where he would punish the girl too badly for her inexperience or worse yet send her back to the Slave Trader. She feared that if he did, the young girl would die if she was reading the signs right. But the problem was that she couldn't say or do much, seeing how it was up to Naofumi to deal with this in his own way.

"Whilst I don't care if you become a bandit or get paid to protect the human Master, and I understand that you need those who can help you but can I request that we help the demi-humans we come across?" Kumiho asked with a bow of her head, "I ask as I would like to show the demi-humans that worship you know that their hero is there to protect them, and not the person that this kingdom that portrays you as. They need to know that at least one of the Cardinal Hero's are protecting them, especially the one that they worship."

"As long as they pay I'll help them." Naofumi told her, seeing that she was going to say something, she held up his hand and said, "You might want it so that I don't, but how can I trust people where they leadership place one of their own into enslavement to gain the favour of another."

"But I volunteered to become your slave, Master, I wasn't forced into becoming a slave." Kumiho informed her master, "And so you know, not every demi-human in this kingdom can pay you. Whilst the Queen protects us, there's only so much she can do. Outside of a handful of villages, demi-humans are caught and sold as slaves and those who live in the villages, they have very little money that they can't pay you much."

"Not my problem," Naofumi told her, "after everything that has happened to me, I'm not going to do anything for anyone unless they pay me in some form or they earned my trust where I'll be able to do something for free, I won't be doing anything for free." Kumiho could only sigh at the damage that this kingdom has done to her Master, that he wouldn't be willing to help anyone unless he got paid for it. "And as for your leaders, why didn't they come to me first, try and talk to me before sending you to me?" asked Naofumi.

"But they did," Kumiho informed the Shield Hero, "but because of what happened to you, you sent them away and so decided the best option was to send me here instead."

"So instead of waiting for me to calm down or wait for me to come to them, as at some point I would have come to them once I learned about them, they were willing to send you here to become my slave." Naofumi stated things in his point of view, "So tell me how can I trust such people, how can I know that they or others won't try and control me in some way. Can you tell me that your people wouldn't try and control me for their own personal gain? That they wouldn't try to get rid of me if I wouldn't do what they say or when I'm no longer any use to them?"

Kumiho had to admit that her Master had a point, whilst she didn't know them personally, she did know that there were groups that would try and use the Shield Hero for their own gain. And as much as she hated to admit it, there were a few groups who would kill him once they are done with him. If the rumours were true, that's what happened to the last Shield Hero, once they got their own kingdom and other things, there was a group who killed him. Not that her Master knew this though.

But it didn't matter, whilst Kumiho knew that she was his slave now and he could do whatever he wanted and she could only follow his commands, she wanted to try and make him see sense. To make him realize how bad things really were to show her Master that people needed him to stop the Waves.

"Master, I think you're underestimating those who hate you and what they are willing to do to keep you weak." Kumiho began to explain, hoping that her Master would understand, "Not only are these people trashing your name, but they have made it near impossible for anyone who wishes to help you to do so. There are many fears about what might happen if they do help you, they fear what the king might do to them. I understand your fears that those who sent me might have their own agenda and want to use you, which they might have, but regardless, your job is to save our world."

Here Naofumi gave a dark look at this, not wanting to be reminded of the reason he was here. As part of him believed that this world should burn to ashes, but he knew that if he allowed this to happen, he too would die. As the only way, he could go home was to save this damn world from the waves. He had a few comments about what Kumiho had to say so far, but he held his tongue until she was finished.

"Sure that doesn't mean you have to protect the people nor the country that they live in," admitted Kumiho, "but if you treat everyone the same because of the actions of this one king, nobles, nations along with that princess, then why are you fighting?" Kumiho asked her Master seriously, wanting to make him think clearly about why he was doing all this. "The Waves of Destruction are said to get worse and worse, as each one passes. If you are just fighting to leave this world, then you will not have the resolve to live long enough to see it to the end." she said with a deadly serious tone, "If the rumours of what I heard what happened to the first town that got hit by the Wave are true then this is going to get a lot worse."

As Raphtalia seemed to shake at hearing that.

However, before anything else could be said though, the Sword and Bow Hero entered the tavern. Seeing them Naofumi got into a darker mood than he already was in, he wasn't in the mood at all to deal with those two fools. So pushing his meal away from him, he stood up and said, "We're leaving, now!"

"But Master…" began Raphtalia, not understanding what was going on. But her Master wasn't in the mood, as he said, "I said we're leaving, don't make me give you an order."

"Listen Raphtalia, it's best we leave now." Crusch told the young slave softly, "Lord Naofumi has, say we say problems with the other Heroes at the moment, and he isn't in the mood to deal with them right now. So either eat quickly or leave your meal, either way, we're leaving. It would be best not to anger him right now when it comes to them and the royals of this kingdom I've heard that he has no tolerance for them. He can be very snappy about it, and is unwilling to talk about it when he is like this." Raphtalia nodded quickly as she finished her meal before she walked behind her Master.

Naofumi was hoping to leave without incident, seeing how he wasn't in the mood right now to talk to them without letting his mood get the better of him. But it wasn't to be though, as the Itsuki spotted him and called out to him darkly, "I see that you're still using slaves to do your work for you, not only that but you gain an extra two since I last saw you. Don't you have no shame? We are meant to show these people a better way of life, showing them that things like slavery are wrong."

"You damn pervert," Renka sneered darkly, "seeing how you can't get any women to sleep with, you got yourself, three slaves, to be with, seeing how they can't say no to you. Can you get any lower?" Then seeing that one of them was just a child, she launched herself at the Shield Hero.

Thankfully Itsuki held her back before she could do any damage, standing in front of her, he said, "Listen Renka, I understand that you are angry and for the right reason, but we're indoors with innocent people who could get hurt if you fight here. We can't allow that, we are the true heroes here, we should act like it."

"But he is with a child, who more than like force her to have sex with him." Renka told the Bow Hero, making people who weren't already watching the outburst to do so.

"You, you sick twisted bitch!" Naofumi told her darkly before Naofumi could finish Kumiho quickly stepped up next to her and without any hesitation, slapped Renka in the face with enough force to push her back and leave a red mark on her face.

"I am highly disappointed in you!" Kumiho said looking down at Renka, "I thought the heroes would be smart enough to believe in each other instead of a spoiled lying child!" she said in a cold and stormy tone.

"Hay! That's the princess you're talking about!" Itsuki said angrily, angry at what this demi-human did. But he figured that Naofumi probably told her some lies to defend himself, "You can't say things like that about her."

"I can and I will," snapped Kumiho, "because she's nothing more than a lying cheat. From what I have heard, her own mother was so disgraced by her actions, that she disinherited the First Princess and gave the inheritance of the next Queen to her younger sister. If you knew anything about our world and its politics, you would have already known how big of a deal that is. If the rumours are true, the First Princess would be willing to do anything to get her way. It wouldn't surprise me if she lied about Lord Naofumi for some reason."

Naofumi was shocked to see someone standing up for him against his fellow Heroes, it reminded him what Crusch did for him. This made part of him realize how devoted demi-humans were to him, but another part of him was concerned, wondering if this was only to get on his good side. The Slave Trader did say that she was there for him as someone arranged it, who knows what she really could be up to. Thanks to how he was treated in this world, all he knew, whoever sent her to him, could have done whatever to her so that she could lie if she had to, or even hide certain things even with the Slave Crest.

"It doesn't matter he's still bought slaves to screw or why else would he get you since he couldn't get anyone else to fall for his tricks." Renka sneered at Kumiho.

"Because I'm unable to attack and I need someone to do it for me." Naofumi reminded her, before lying, "So you know, these slaves don't belong to me. One belongs to a blacksmith who agreed to help me, and the other two are part of a job that I'm doing. One where I'm helping someone to protect these slaves as they level up."

"You would support slavery?" Renka asked in shock, unable to believe how low he could go.

"Normally no," admitted Naofumi, "but seeing how in this world slavery is legal and most support it, I don't want to interfere with their beliefs seeing how we might leave after the Waves are over. Not only that but what other option do I have but to work with slavers or the slave masters. No one is willing to work with me, so I'll take help wherever I can."

"And who's fault is that?" Renka asked darkly, "If you hadn't raped the First Princess, you wouldn't have this problem."

Naofumi hated that she would say that aloud, he was trying to keep that from his slaves so that they wouldn't fear what he might do to them. Okay, mainly he didn't want Raphtalia to know, as he didn't think she needed to know that people thought he was a rapist. He didn't want her to fear that he might do something like that to her without warning.

Then he remembered that she saw his Status Card, maybe he could make her see sense, to prove to her that he didn't do what the bitch said he did. So trying to make the foolish girl see reason, Naofumi said, "Listen Renka, you saw my Status Card, do you really think at that time I was able to do anything?"

"Yeah I saw that and when I first heard about you raping Princess Malty, I had my doubts about it and so I went to talk to her about it. To learn the truth to see if you really did do it, as I knew one of your abilities made it impossible to make you drunk." explained Renka, "However, whilst the Princess said she couldn't explain it, she admitted that you really were drunk and that you must have faked your abilities somehow."

"And how was I meant to do this err?" Naofumi asked her darkly, "We only been in the world for a few hours, how the hell could I fake my skills and abilities."

"I wondered about that too and I asked her about it too," admitted the Sword Hero, "but she was able to explain that too. She told me that there were those who were very loyal to the Shield Hero, and they were willing to do whatever you wanted. So seeing how weak you were, you had those loyal to the Shield Hero help you fake your skills to make you look better than you really were."

"You gotta be kidding me, you believe such a bullshit story like that?" Naofumi asked her in disbelief, he couldn't believe that anyone would believe such a bullshit story. "We were only in this world for a few hours, so how would they know that I needed to fake my abilities? To demi-humans I am a god-like figure, so why would they want to fake my skills and abilities and how would they in a human superiority country."

"Because they consider you as their god," Renka shot back, "they don't want their god to look so useless and weak."

"You're not going to believe me no matter what anyone says," Naofumi said with a sigh, "not like that you believed me from the start."

"What are you talking about?" asked the Bow Hero, asked that Naofumi say such a thing seeing how Renka gave her first time to the bastard.

"Remember when I asked if any of you had any tips for help?" Naofumi asked them, the two other heroes only nodded at this, wanting him to get to the point of things, "Whilst Motoyasu tip about coping my weapon type worked, her tip about monster drops and creating items with our weapons didn't work. At first, I thought it was me or the system just didn't work in this world, but now? I think she had no faith in me and gave me some damn fake tip because she felt sorry for me."

"What are you talking about?" asked Itsukie, "That system works well for me here, in fact, it saved me money on potions and such."

"Same with me, the system works for me as well." Renka informed the Shield Hero, "And me not having any faith for you? I had a lot of faith in you until you did what you did, that's when I lost any faith that I had for you."

"Yeah right," scoffed Naofumi, "if you had any faith in me, you would have believed me when I said I didn't rape the bitch." Seeing how they were going to defend the bitch, Naofumi decided to cut them off by saying, "You know what, I think it's better if me and my team leave."

"Yeah, I think it would be for the best." Renka remarked darkly, and without another word, Naofumi and his companions left the tavern and went to the fields to level up.

_**To Be Continued!**_

_**Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END:**_ Here ends another chapter of Rising of the Shield Demon, I would like to thank you for reading this chapter and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I'm sorry for the wait, but I had problems with the ending of the chapter, it took longer to write than I hoped. I got to a point where Renka and Itsukie entered the tavern, I had to redo and redo it until I was happy about it, which took a while, even now I'm not fully happy with it but it is the best I could get for the part of the story. So if you don't fully like it, you're not the only one, I don't fully like it either.

So you know, I'm going with the info that I gained from a Shield Hero discord group I'm in and a YouTube video I found about Itsuki strengthening method. They told me that Itsuki rarity method is finding rare weapons, not making his weapons rare. So I'm going with that...

Now I have been thinking about the Lust Shield, the main thing I'm looking for are side-effects of using it. For Rage Shield, to activate it, he had to give up all of his SP to do so. And to use his main power at the time, Blood Sacrifice, he had to give up a lot of his stats for a month, so I was thinking what these side-effects should be for the Lust Shield.

I knew that I could use the loss of SP too, as I might want to use it at the same time as the Rage Shield, which is why I've been asking you guys. Although, now that I think about it, I didn't do a good job at it lol. Either way, I got a review from the last chapter that give me an idea of the side-effects for using the Lust Shield, here's the part of the review that got me thinking:

The Lust shield could have a poison area effect that is constantly pumped from Naofumi's body whilst in use due to his pumped-up emotions and needs, that weakens enemies(and allies) caught in the area over time:

\- Causes them to lose vision/partially blind them.

\- Slowly weakens defences of all who's affected.

\- Maybe cause monsters/enemies/allies to go into a frenzy and attack anything that moves (could be a major drawback if used wrong)

\- Like the pheromone shield the Curse: Shield Of Lust will also produce pheromones from the shield at a higher potency to draw in monsters (that could then combo with the poison produced from Naofumi).

\- An attack the shield could also do is ignite the poison, causing an explosion and also setting fire to the surrounding area (a later upgrade) but could cause significant harm to Naofumi (sort of like the Shield of Wrath: Blood Sacrifice).

These are only a few ideas I had, maybe you could make them work or bounce ideas off of mine.

So I was wondering what are your thoughts about this, and what should his most powerful move be for the Lust Shield and what side-effect would Naofumi have for using such skill? Can you think of something better for activating the Lust Shield instead of above?

I would like to comment that the Stinger and Hounds Cores idea came from the came Code Vein. I had to come up with ideas for cores that Motoyasu use instead of transformation cores, I was playing the game when I got the idea.

Here are the results to what body Naofumi should have with Raphtalia in/ So you know if you're keeping a count yourself, there were a few voters who voted in chapter 12 who voted in chapter 11, because of this as I told you before, these votes won't count. I'm trying to be fair here so that no one can say I've been biased here.

Older: Review: 32 PM 2

Young: Review: 37 PM 2

I have looked back when I asked this before and decided to use the votes from what chapter too, at least it is partially fair. So you know who, those who are thinking that the Lust Shield will take the place of the Rage Shield, that's not happening, he is going to have both.

Yes Lust Shield: 24 PM 1

No Lust Shield: 9

I got a question from Storylover213 that got me thinking if this is a dark and evil Naofumi does that mean once he thinks his new slaves are healthy enough he'll use them as he sees fit even as pleasure slaves?

So you know, after a few reviews that I got saying that Lust Shield isn't needed, I'm having second thoughts. But it might still be there, as a few people said there's lust for power and revenge as well as sexual lust, so might use lust for power and revenge as well as sexual lust. Seeing how he'll want the power to destroy those who belittle him and lust for revenge against Trash and Bitch...


	14. Chapter 13

**_Author's Note:_** A few things before we start: The most important thing that I forgot to mention in the last chapter, which I thought I did, was that the poll for Raphtalia is closed. But don't worry, I'm not going to have Naofumi do it with Raphtalia as she is now, other than a lame, no she'll be in her early teens, fourteen/fifteen before anything else happens.

Some of you are wondering why I'm keeping Naofumi in a kingdom that hates him when I can make him go to other places, even to a sky island. Well there's three reasons: first is the plant shield that he gets which allows him to create plant monsters. Sure I could have it so that he could get that on another island, but this is just a filler to fill in for the second and third reason.

The second reason is the Dragon Core. Sure I could use any dragon core, but I want the one that Ren killed for obvious reasons. The dragon hates Ren and wants to punish her for killing him. The last and most important reason for him staying in the kingdom, for now, is so that he could get the Soul Eater Shield. This is the most important shield for him to get and outside of the third wave, he is unable to get it anywhere else. So until he gets the shield, I can't have him leave the kingdom, as the Soul Eater Shield is key to an idea that I have along with a weapon to fight Glass. So until after the third wave, he has to stay in the Kingdom of Melromarc.

As for the lust shield, that would have been done and dealt with before the last chapter, but I learned about a problem with the poll voting on fanfiction where the votes didn't match to what people voted for. So you know, if you haven't noticed from this story and my other stories, I am a slow writer and so things are done slower than most of you are used to. I'm sorry about that, but it can't be helped.

Sorry for the long note at the start of the story, but I felt it was needed to explain why things are happening the way they are before I continued the story. So you know, there's a small lime at the end of the chapter, you'll know it when you get to this ( . v . ) ( . v . ) If you don't like it, you can skip it by looking for another set of ( . v . ) ( . v . ) Either way, onto the next chapter.

**_Chapter Thirteen…_**

**_Atla!_**

As Naofumi and his group left the town to hunt for a few monsters, they came across a group of ten Orange Balloons that were gathering around near the river near the town. Instead of having his slaves to deal with them, Naofumi himself held them back and dealt with them. Every punch that he threw against the Balloons was harder than the last as he thought back with the meeting of Renka and Itsuki. The ladies there saw that the green gem on the Hero's shield had a hint of red in it. And as he punched the Balloons and let his anger out on them, the red slowly took over the gem.

But before the gem became full red, Naofumi stopped punching the Balloons and took a few deep breaths, before he said, "Sorry about that, but those two damn fools just got to me and I had to unleash my anger on something."

"Understood Master/Lord Naofumi!" the three girls said at once. They saw the effects that meeting the other two heroes had on Naofumi, so he would want to vent on something. As he did, all of them saw that his shield started to slowly regain its green colouring. Although Raphtalia had to admit that she was a bit shocked at this; she had thought that all of the heroes should get along with each other, so it was a bit of a shock to hear that they were against the Shield Hero and for reasons she didn't believe in.

Sure they told Naofumi that they don't believe in those stories, but Naofumi believed that they were just saying it. For Kumiho, Naofumi believed that she was saying it because that's what she believed he wanted to hear, seeing as whoever sent her wanted to get on his good side. As for young Raphtalia, Naofumi thought that seeing how he was her master now, she had to believe everything he said no matter what or agree with him even if she didn't believe him.

Whatever the case, Naofumi knew that he had to keep things on track, that he shouldn't lose himself in self-doubt and anger. "So Crusch, what was it that you wanted to teach me today?" Naofumi asked after a few more deep breaths.

"Well, today I'm going to teach you how to skin and gut a monster properly." explained Crusch, "Not only would it allow you to get money by selling their meat, skin and other parts, but I believe that with how the Legendary Shield works for you, it could give you more shields."

"Does it really matter how I cut them out?" asked Naofumi, sure he researched about it for his comic, but he never did it himself. To be honest, he didn't think it was all that important how he skinned or dissected animals.

"It matters a lot, Lord Naofumi," Crusch informed the Shield Hero, "if the skin, fur and such is damaged, it'll sell for less than it would normally. Especially the cores, eyes, and other ingredients, and if they are damaged in any form, they can become degraded and people can't use them. You need to also understand that some cores aren't always visible, they lay within the monster's body and only be found once you skin and dissect it. So, if you're not careful you could damage important parts of the monster."

"I see, I didn't realize it was that important." Naofumi admitted to the lizard-woman, then looking at his two slaves and remembering that Kumiho knew how to fight, he went on to say, "Now whilst Crusch is teaching me how to do this, I want you two to level up. Kumiho, seeing how you know how to fight, I would like it if you could teach Raphtalia how to use her new blade so she knows what she is doing and doesn't hurt herself or one of us with it."

"Sure Master." Kumiho said with a bow.

Raphtalia looked a bit nervous at the thought of fighting, but she said nervously, "S, sure Master."

"Don't worry, if you stay near the entrance, you'll find weak monsters that'll be easy to deal with. Look for the Loomush, Bluemushes and Greenmushes," explained Crusch, "They are weak and low level, but they give out five to fifteen Exp, so you should be able to level up fast enough with us defeating monsters."

"What are these mush monsters like?" asked Naofumi, worried about his slaves. He didn't want to buy new ones if these ones die so soon.

"You could say they are like the Balloon Monsters; in fact, these monsters are better known as Inorganic Monsters." explained Crusch, "They are the weakest monsters in this world, so they are the most useful monsters to help new adventures level up."

"So why didn't we level up there in the first place?" asked Naofumi.

"Because other than the mush monsters and a few other weak creatures, the deeper you get into the forest, the stronger the monsters you'll face." explained the lizard-woman, "So I had you deal with the monsters around the kingdom first before going deep in the forest. Now, whilst we go deep in the forest, Raphtalia and Kumiho can deal with the mush monsters nearby."

"I see," Naofumi said simply, as he could see Crusch's point of view, "so before we go, Raphtalia and Kumiho, while I'm gone as you defeat these mush monsters, I want you to keep their bodies or any parts of them that are left. I want to see if I can unlock any new shields from them. Is that understood?"

"Yes Master," his two slaves said together as the four parted ways, Crusch and Naofumi going one way, as Raphtalia and Kumiho went another to find some mush monsters.

It wasn't long before Crusch and Naofumi came across something useful, a pack of dire wolves that Crusch decided to use to train Naofumi how to dissect an animal. Sure, they could start with small creatures like a rabbit-like monster called Usapil, but it was too small for Crusch, she wanted to start off with something big and later go smaller. She figured it would be easier to teach Naofumi on something bigger.

Naofumi found that skinning and dissecting was harder than he first thought. He learned that he should gut the animal within thirty minutes before the animal begins to go bad. Not only that, but he had to be careful of not piercing the stomach, bladder and urethra, as it could ruin the meat and other important items. For the first few tries, Naofumi failed at gutting the wolves, he kept hitting one of the parts that he shouldn't and ruined the organs. Thankfully though, after a few hours of practice and Crusch telling him where he was going wrong, Naofumi finally got it right. At the end of the day, he got the following from his training:

10 Wolf Pelts.

Wolf Fangs.

Wolf Claws.

Raw Meat.

10 Wolf Cores.

He didn't get as much meat as he would have liked, but Naofumi knew that because of his early mistakes in cutting the parts he shouldn't have, he ruined the meat and only could get the other items. He picked up the fangs and claws as Crusch informed him that people often buy these items as accessories. He was informed that with them being basic accessories, the best he could get from selling them was around twenty copper coins. However, should he learn how to enchant an item, he could gain much more depending on the enchantment, starting from around five silver coins.

Naofumi wasn't sure if he would have the time to learn or find someone to teach him about enchantments, but if he did, he would try to do so. It would give him the coins to get the things he would need to deal with the Waves, as well as getting food and other necessities. During this time, he absorbed some of the items from the wolves, and gained a few new shields.

His first shield was from the Wolf Cores:

**_Dire Werewolf Shield_**

_Equip Bonus:_

Dire Werewolf Transformation - Level 1 (Unmastered)

Naofumi was presently surprised about this. With how his luck was at the moment, he wasn't expecting one of his shields to have a transformation skill without buying the component. His stats for the shield were three attack, five defence and five magical defence; Naofumi was hoping for more attack points if he was honest with himself. As he thought about it however, since he was a Shielder, he was lucky to have this ability, let alone have any attack points at all.

Opening the information screen, he read about the ability and learned that the more he levelled it up, the stronger it would get, and he would be able to gain other abilities during the transformation. So when he had the spare skill points, he would put a few of them on this ability. The problem is that to get the ability to level two, he needed at least seven skill points. When he thought about it a bit more, it made some sense, seeing how powerful this ability can become.

The main problem he had with this ability was that it would cost him fifty mana points to use, and he could only use it for twenty minutes. This meant that he couldn't stay as a werewolf for too long, the only way he could use it longer and for less mana was for him to level it up.

Next two were the claws and fangs. He got another two new shields, two that helped with the transformation shield.

**_Wolf Fang Shield_**

_Equip Bonus:_

+5 to Fang Attacks (Unmastered)

**_Wolf Claw Shield_**

_Equip Bonus:_

+10 to Claw Attacks (Unmastered)

Now whilst these shields did nothing to his normal stats, at the very least they helped with his Dire Werewolf Transformation ability. At least he would have some strength in his fights, and even though he couldn't stay in this form for long, he should be able to defeat most monsters within twenty minutes. Until he could level up the **_Dire Werewolf Shield, _**he would only use it only when he needed extra attack points, as he had other things to use his skill points on at the moment.

Then finally there was the Wolf Pelts, where he got the last of the Wolf Serie: **_Wolf Fur Shield._**

**_Wolf Fur Shield_**

_Equip Bonus:_

Thermal Resistance (Small) (Unmastered)

This shield was similar to his cape, but not as powerful, not that he minded too much. It would work with his cape to keep him from getting too hot or cold, so in the long run, it would help a lot either way. Thankfully, this was one skill not connected to his transformation ability.

After packing the remaining parts of the wolf that he didn't absorb into his shield, the two left to find Raphtalia and Kumiho to see how they were doing. He was a bit worried as over the last few hours they only gained two levels, and that was thanks to his connection to them as he killed the wolves. He didn't run off to them as Crusch pointed out he would know if they were in trouble thanks to the Status Magic connecting them. But he would be having a few words with them if they didn't have a good reason for not being at least level four or five.

**_o0OoO0o_**

Now as Naofumi returned to his slaves, he saw Raphtalia defending against Kumiho, who was telling how to stand and what to do to make it better. Upon seeing them, Naofumi called out to them, "What are you two thinking you're doing? I thought I told you to level up."

"Sorry Master, I am at blame," Kumiho informed her Master, ready for any punishment he saw fit for not doing what he wanted, "I wanted to teach young Raphtalia how to use a sword and how to defend herself from attacks before we do any real fighting." Raphtalia looked upset and ashamed that she didn't do what her Master wanted of her, she was worried that he would punish her for this. But if he didn't she would find a way to make it up to him later on.

Naofumi couldn't find himself to be angry at this, seeing how he did want Kumiho to teach Raphtalia how to use a sword. With a sigh, he asked, "Did you attack any monsters whilst I was training?"

"Just a few monsters here and there to see how well Raphtalia could fight them," admitted the elder slave. "She had problems keeping hold of her sword and was unable to defend herself. I spent the last few hours teaching her how to use a sword properly and the monsters that we defeated we collected just like you asked."

"So not a total waste of time then." Naofumi said with a slight smile, happy to see that they did something useful during the last few hours and not having him levelling them up himself. "Either way, let's head back into town. Ulthane wants to see me about something before we leave the town to train for the next few days. We'll start our job for the Slave Trader after. So let's go."

"Yes Master/Lord Naofumi." the three slaves said together as the four of them began to head back into town.

As they headed back to town, the ground began to shake, making the slaves lose their footing and stumble around. Raphtalia was actually knocked off her feet from the force and fell to the ground. It was only a moment before she was picked up off of the ground by Naofumi who looked confused at why everyone was stumbling around. The land then started to shift, rippling like small waves, as slowly an old tomb rose out of the ground. The size of the tomb reminded Naofumi of Todaiji Temple back in his world. Around the tomb, about thirty feet away from the base, were pillars and statues—the statues were of centaurs.

Once the tomb fully emerged, a Status Window appeared in front of the four of them:

**_WARNING!_**

**_The _****_Tomb of Sagittarius _****_has Appeared!_**

_Level Requirement: _

Level 15

_Countdown:_

H: 12 M: 30 S: 30

Upon seeing this, Naofumi was a bit confused. Sure, the Bitch mentioned that dungeons sometimes appear out of nowhere, but until now Naofumi hadn't believed her. Thanks to how the bitch treated him and the lies she told, as well as everything else, Naofumi didn't believe much of anything he heard before.

"So this is a dungeon that appears every so often." Naofumi said to himself as he looked at the tomb.

"So you know about them then?" asked Crusch.

"Only that they are different from other dungeons, as that they appear anywhere at any time." Naofumi informed the demi-human.

"In that case, you need to know about these dungeons, and that's there are two types of them." explained the young lizard-woman, "The first type is known as Zodiac Tomb, there are twenty-four of them."

"Twenty-four Zodiac Tombs?" Naofumi asked in surprise. He was a bit shocked there were so many zodiac signs in this world. In his world, depending on your culture, there were only up to twelve signs in the zodiac.

"Yes, the first twelve signs, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces." explained Crusch, "These Zodiac Tombs can give the adventures abilities connected to these signs, say someone was able to clear the Taurus Tomb, they could gain enhanced strength, endurance and stamina, and there are rumours that there was one adventure being able to transform into a man/bull creature that Taurus was meant to look like."

Naofumi had to admit that the powers from these tombs seemed to be very useful. Whilst he knew very little about the zodiac signs and the powers that they represent, he didn't know that each one was connected to one of the four elements. So he believed that if a person could gain one of these elements and how much power they gain from the tombs, it could make a person really powerful.

_'Hold on, if these twelve zodiac __signs__ are from my world, would it mean that the other ones would be too?'_ Naofumi thought to himself. The first twelve signs were from the Western Astrology, so would that mean that the other twelve would be either from the Chinese Zodiac or the Celtic Zodiac?

Before Naofumi could ask about this, Crusch went on to say, "The next lot of tombs belonging to the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and the Pig. Those who are lucky enough to clear those tombs can either summon the animal of that tomb or they can transform into them. The last time I heard someone clearing one of these tombs was about a year or so ago."

"Why was it so long since someone cleared one of these tombs?" asked Naofumi, he couldn't see why someone wouldn't want to clear one of these tombs. He would have thought that being able to call upon a loyal summon to fight for you would be ideal, as they shouldn't be able to betray you like normal people could.

"A simple reason, Zodiac Tombs only rarely appear," Crusch informed the young Shield Hero, "it is said that only a handful would appear in a year. Should one of the second set of tombs appear, many don't see the point of trying to clear them since they don't want to transform into one of them or summon them. At least those in this land don't use them, for some reason or another."

Naofumi thought it was stupid, as any power in a world full of monsters and demons would be useful to defend oneself. But to each their own; it only confirmed to him how stupid this world really was. Instead of carrying on with the questions about the Zodiac Tombs, something he could do later on, he asked, "So what's the second type of dungeons that appear?"

"Those ones are known as Temples of Power," explained the demi-human, "the Temples, whilst you need to do something to get something, aren't as deadly as the Tombs. They are more common than the tombs, but still quite rare. These temples, once cleared, can give a person some kind of power, all depending on two things: their Magic Affinity and their level at the time. Although they might have the Magic Affinity that the temple has to offer, if their level isn't high enough, they might not have the experience needed to learn the power the temple is offering."

That made some sense, since some of the games back in his world had certain skills that you needed a specific class or level before you could obtain. These temples were similar in that way, but as he thought about that, he asked, "Listen, if you have these temples and tombs which give you powers and strength, why would you need us heroes?"

"Because unlike other adventures who have limits, you heroes have no limits when it comes to skills and levels." Crusch informed Naofumi, "The Waves of Calamity are going to get stronger as you know, but if the best of adventurers were to handle them as they would the minions, then they would have no hope to fight against the bosses. That would be down to the heroes that were summoned to do so, seeing how they would have the levels and abilities to do so."

"Hmm…" Naofumi hummed thoughtfully as he thought about this, he could see her point of view. He heard about a few games back in his world where side-characters would deal with the minions whilst the main character(s) dealt with the boss. "So do you think we can deal with this tomb?" asked Naofumi, thinking with someone as high of a level as Crusch, they could clear the tomb with ease.

"Sadly no, that would be impossible." Crusch informed the Shield Hero, "there's a barrier around the tombs and temples to stop those who don't meet the level requirement. It's said that the tombs are too dangerous so whoever created them made it so that no one who isn't ready can't enter it. So that people who aren't ready, don't get killed."

Once again Naofumi could see her point at this, if these tombs were as dangerous as the lizard-woman were making them out to be, it was wise to stop adventures from getting into them until they were ready. So seeing that there was no point standing about, he decided to continue back to town. As they were walking back to town, they saw adventurers running to the tomb to try and enter it.

**_o0OoO0o_**

Once they returned to Castle Town, they went straight back to Ulthane's shop, where they found it closed. Seeing this, Crusch opened the door and went down to the forge to see if Ulthane was down there. They found him there, talking to what looked like another Maker, only this one was a female.

She was a few feet taller than Ulthane, who had long wavy blond hair and blue eyes. She was wearing traditional barbarian armour, a leather loincloth with bronze trimmings, leather, toeless, fur tufted boots with bronze guard plates, and a leather chest piece with a bronze guard plate with crisscrossing straps on its back. Lastly, she was wearing bronze pauldrons, upper arm guards and leather gauntlets with bronze guards to protect the back of her hands.

"Ah Crusch, Naofumi, I'm glad you have returned when you did," said Ulthane when he saw them, "Naofumi, I would like you to meet Atla. She came to teach you what you need to know about alchemy."

"Thank you Atla, it's nice to meet you, I'm Naofumi Iwatani, I hope you can help me." greeted Naofumi, as he gave her a small bow in respect.

"I'm happy to help one of the Cardinal Heroes," Atla informed the Shield Hero, "but I do have a question or two for you, if you don't mind me asking that is, Sir Hero?"

"Sure, I don't mind." Naofumi told her. If it helped with her training him, he would be willing to answer any questions that she had for him.

"Could you tell me why you are fighting?" asked the female Maker.

"Why do you want to know?" the Shielder asked with interest.

"As you know, the Waves are going to become so much harder, so I would like to know, what is your reason for fighting?" Atla told the young man, "I always believe that a person should have a reason for putting their lives at risk in life and death fights."

"I don't have any heroic reason for fighting if that's what you're wondering," Naofumi informed Atla, "I'm only fighting to stay alive so that when this is all over, I can go home. I know that you might think that for someone risking their life in this life and death situation they would need some kind of reason for fighting, like some kind of reward or wanting to save someone or something like that. But the truth is I have no such reason, I have no one that I trust or believe in to risk my life for them. I'm only fighting to live. If it wasn't for the risk of losing my life, I would allow this world to burn to ashes if I could. Thanks to this kingdom, I have no reason to save this world."

"I see." Atla said with a sigh, unhappy at how this kingdom had turned one of the key players who could defend this world against it. This was something really foolish, but living as long as she has, not something unsurprising. The truth is that this world needed to change, it has been waiting a long time for such a thing, but no one was strong enough, nor had the urge to make a change to the world. She had to wonder though, given the chance, could this new Shield Hero be the one to make the change needed for this world?

"Let me ask you something Sir Naofumi, what would you do if there was a way to save the world, but at the cost of millions of people?" asked Atla, wondering how much Naofumi would allow the world to be destroyed. "Would you sit back and do nothing or would you fight and save them?"

"You're talking about the four Guardian Beasts aren't you?" asked Naofumi, to which the blonde-haired Maker only nodded at this, "In that case, it all depends how things play out."

"Meaning?"

"Let's just say I have my reasons to be prepared to face off against them if things go wrong and that I'm pretty sure that no matter how hard I try I'm going to be smack dab in the middle of this shit storm." Naofumi said, "also, from what little Ulthane could remember from the stories of the last time that the Waves of Calamity, the foolish Heroes of that time sealed the Guardians for some reason. Am I right?" asked the Shield Hero as he remembered his talks with Ulthane over the last week.

"One last question, what if you're unable to go back to your world, what would you do then?" asked Atla.

"What are you talking about? Why couldn't I go back?" Naofumi asked confused, the gem in his shield had a hint of red in it, "I thought that once we dealt with the damn Waves of Calamity, I could go home!"

"And you probably can if you want," admitted Atla, "but the question is what would you do if you couldn't go home. First off, we're not even sure about most of the functions of the Four Legendary Weapons. Rumour is that they are supposed to grant a boon to the wielder, but we're not completely sure. Hell, we don't even know if it was actually the ritual that summons the heroes or the weapons, so for all we know there could be a spell to send you back right now or bring even more people here. Regardless of that, if you did go home, how would you think the people around you would treat you? I mean, from what I heard, you don't know how to fight. So if you go back home and you suddenly know how to protect yourself in fights, or you have a much more mature nature or hell you're much older, how would you explain that to the people from your world? Unless your world has magic, it's going to be very awkward to explain unless you can think of something to cover it all."

"But I didn't die in my world though." Naofumi told her.

"That you know of, Sir Naofumi," Atla told him, "all you know wherever you were could have been blown up, or someone could have shot you when you weren't looking or many other things could have happened that ended up with you dying. It would make a lot of sense, seeing how all the other heroes came here after dying."

Naofumi would like nothing more but to say that he didn't die, but he knew that it wasn't impossible. Not by a bomb or being shot either, he could have an unknown medical condition that killed him on that day without warning. Before he could say anything though, Atla went on to say, "Even if you didn't die, what are you going to say if you could go home? The Waves can last for months, even years, how are you going to explain your disappearance without sounding insane? If you were to say that you were in another world fighting monsters and having powers, how do you think they'll react to this? Not only this, but you'll be a different person by the time you get back, so how are you going to explain all that?"

As much as Naofumi wanted to deny it, she was right, if he did return home, it would be a long time before it happened. And by the time he could decide to return home or not, he would have a new life experience, even be a different person to what anyone back in his world would know. Damn, thanks to the bitch and her damn father, he already was a different person. He was now an untrusting, darker person than they knew, right now if anyone back in his world did something to piss him off, he would be more than happy to bite back and hurt them. Something he would have never done before coming here.

"So I ask you, even if you could go home, would you really want to?" asked the Maker, "You're more than likely not going to be the same person they knew, would you really want to go back to a world where they no longer understand you or know what you have been through? From what I can understand, by the time for the heroes to decide their reward, they decided to stay here. Not only because they died back in their world, but even if they could get back to their old lives, they also didn't think they could fit in back in their world. Can you say you could?"

This got Naofumi thinking, after everything is said and done, can he honestly say he could go back to his world becoming a darker person than the person his friends and family knew? Would it be right for him to go back? As he would be a totally different person, he didn't know if he could fight back into his old world once this is all done. "Honestly, I don't know." admitted Naofumi, "I would love nothing more but to leave this damn world once I'm done here, but by that time, I'll be a totally different person as you said. I don't know if I'll fit into that world after everything I've seen and I'll be forced to do in this world."

"And that's what you need to think about." stated Atla, "Not only how to deal with the Waves, but what you're going to do afterwards. You said it yourself, the other heroes think this is some sort of game, and so think only about the fame and fortune that they'll get at the end of it. But you, you seem to know what really is happening around here, and you're willing to do what it takes to do help, even if it means changing who you are."

Atla allowed Naofumi a few moments to think about this before she went on to say, "Either way, let's forget about the future and talk about why I'm here. I've come to teach you how to read this world's language, alchemy, and a few other spells that I think might help you."

"I'm grateful, Atla," thanked Naofumi, "I was worried that I wouldn't be able to learn this world's language and so not be able to learn alchemy. At least not without someone's help, which I thought I would never get with how people have treated me so far."

"It's not a problem, in fact, it's an honour that I can help a Cardinal Hero to become stronger," Atla said with a bow.

"Has Ulthane told you that I'm not going to be the hero that you might suspect me to be?" asked Naofumi, wanting to know if he had to say something about his plans or not.

"Yes he did," admitted Atla, "and whilst I would like nothing more than for you to be a true hero, I can understand why you would pick this path. As Ulthane told you, as long as you don't try to destroy the balance, we won't interfere with your affairs and even help you where we can. Which is why I'm willing to help you."

"Well, seeing how you know that I'm planning to become a bandit, I was wondering if you could help me learn a skill I heard about called **_Fake Out_**? I heard that if I work on it, I can hide not only my stats but my identity too, which would make things easier."

"I can help with teaching it, but you do know that to get to the level you want it, it'll take hard work and time," Atla informed him as she walked to a shelf where a few bags were, and looked inside.

"What's new?" Naofumi asked darkly, "My time in this world is nothing but hard work and time. If it's a skill that can help me with my plans, I'm willing to work on it, no matter how hard or time consuming it may be. Either way, this world thinks that because I'm the Shield Hero, I'm weak and useless, so I say let them think that. I want to hide my true stats so that they keep underestimating me, so they won't know what I'm truly capable of doing until it is too late for them. Not only that, but from what I can tell, should I gain any real strength, any useful attack points, they'll think that I got them by cheating instead of getting them through the Shield itself."

"Understandable." said Atla as she pulled a crystal ball from one of her bags, she really could understand wanting people to underestimate them. "But are you sure that they won't believe you if you told them about what the weapons can do, about the Strengthening Method?"

"In all honesty?" asked Naofumi, "No, no I don't. Right now with how they think of me, I would think they would believe that I'm lying about it all, to cover up that I'm cheating somehow."

"I can't believe that this kingdom summoned three fools like this," Atla muttered to herself, but Naofumi heard her.

"While they might not have meant to summon foolish heroes, I think the king and his bitch of a daughter are thankful for it though." Naofumi told her, "If they weren't fools, they would have sided with me instead of the king and bitch, saving me from being forced to go through all this shit."

Apart from Raphtalia, they had to admit that this was true, if the other heroes weren't as foolish as they were, Naofumi would have a much easier time than he was having now. In fact, he wouldn't have to do what he had planned, he could become a true hero. Whatever the case, they couldn't think of what-ifs, the present is what they've got. They couldn't change the past, no matter how much they might want to.

"Anyway, do you know what this is?" asked Atla, as she held out the crystal ball.

"Sadly no," Naofumi told her.

"This is a Magical Crystal, which allows you to learn magic, in this case **_Fake Out_**." explained Atla, "All you have to do is to push some magic into the crystal, and you'll be able to learn the magic within it."

"And how do I do that?" asked Naofumi.

"You're telling me that the damn king sent you heroes out not knowing how to use magic?" Atla asked in disbelief. She was starting to believe that whatever questionable plans Naofumi might have or come to have for this kingdom, that they deserved it and then some.

"I don't know about the other heroes, but for me they didn't tell me a thing." Naofumi admitted darkly, unhappy about this, "In fact, I think they would have taught the other heroes about magic after I was framed, seeing how they didn't want to make the Shield Demon powerful."

Atla sighed as she said, "In that case, that'll be one of the first things that I'll be teaching you."

"That's fine." Naofumi informed her, in fact, he really did want to learn magic. Ever since he learned that he could do such a thing, he couldn't wait to learn magic, in any form. "When do you want to start?"

"Right now would be ideal." Atla told him, "As the sooner you learn **_Fake Out_**, the faster we can train you in it so that you can use it the way you're planning to."

"I'm fine starting now, but I do plan to build a camp outside of town for the night." explained Naofumi, "I want to teach the girls here how to camp and hopefully learn what the night is like in this world. I also want to learn how to deal with what is to come. I'm not planning to stay around this town for too long, and I've got a job where I need to go to another village in a few days. I want to start teaching Raphtalia and Kumiho about camping in a low-level area before we move on."

"That's fine Sir Hero, in fact, I can teach you a few alchemy traps you can set up so you can keep your camp safe during the night." Atla said with a smile. "Where are you planning to camp?"

"Somewhere in the forest," Naofumi informed her, "as we'll have more cover there than we would have in the open fields. Back in my world I was taught that you could hide within the forest better than you could in the open fields. So with how people have been treating me, it would be for the best if I keep a low profile here. Not only that, but I can hide from the monsters too."

Atla could see Naofumi's point in hiding in the forest, it would be hard to find him, and if traps were set up, he would be protected from most of the things in there. "If there's nothing you need to do around town or need to do here, how about we leave now and set up your camp."

"Sure, I have nothing else planned for the day," said Naofumi, "in fact, the sooner I can learn to read this world's language and know how to use alchemy, the sooner I can do more and get stronger."

"Before you go, Naofumi, I have something for you," Ulthane told him.

"You don't have to do a thing, allowing Crusch to help me was more than enough." Naofumi informed the Maker. Whilst he would like more, having Crusch's help to level up was more than enough. In fact, it was more than he expected, seeing how his luck was shit at the moment.

"Nonsense, having Crusch help you with levelling up was the least I could do for you as a Cardinal Hero, seeing how no one else in the kingdom was willing to help you." Ulthane explained, "It would be foolish to leave you alone weak and unable to fight, whilst the people might not like it, they need you more than you need them. As without you and the other heroes, this world will be destroyed by the Waves of Calamity. Anyway, what I'm giving is only what you yourself got."

"What do you mean?" asked Naofumi.

"With all the stuff you got me, killing off most of the monsters and other jobs that I got you to do, it so that I can create armour for you." explained Ulthane, "Not only armour, but Monster Cores and other items too." And with that, he walked over to his workbench where he picked up an aggressive and wild-looking armour, "I called this armour, Barbarian Armour." Ulthane informed the young hero as he gave the armour to him.

The armour had a breastplate made out of light metal and shaped almost exactly like his Legendary Shield in its default form. His green cloak had been outfitted with fluff from the rabbit like monsters called Usapils. (Ulthane gave him some Usapil parts too, which gave him two new shields: **_Usapil Leather Shield_** which gave him three points in speed. Next was **_Usapil Meat Shield_**, which made it easier to dissect animals.)

His thighs were protected by a pair of cuisse, which instead of being made of metal, were made from thick Porcupine skin with Pikyu feathers stuffed in between the skins. (Ulthane gave him parts from Porcupine and the PikyuPikyu, but when he fed them to his shield, he only got two shields from the Porcupine. The **_Dark Porcupine Shield_** and the **_Porcupine Bone Shield_**, the Dark Shield gave him two levels in evasion and two levels in speed. As for the Bone Shield, it gave him ten bonus Spirit Points.)

Seeing this new armour, Naofumi checked its stats to see what it was like.

**_Barbarian Armour:_**

_Stats:_

Physical Defence: +25

Magical Defence: +15

_Special Ability:_

Slash Resist 5%

Cold Resist 10%

Quill Resist 15%

Slots:

Four Empty Slots.

Naofumi had to admit that this armour was much better than that damn Chain Mail that bitch got him to buy, both in physical and magical defence. And it had better abilities and two extra slots to use. The armour didn't end there, Ulthane also gave him boots and gloves to fit with his new armour. They too were made from Porcupine and PikyuPikyu, with metal plating to protect the back of Naofumi's hands.

**_Barbarian Boots:_**

_Stats:_

Physical Defence: +10

Magical Defence: +5

_Special Ability:_

Speed: 10%

Evasion: 15%

**_Barbarian Gloves:_**

_Stats:_

Physical Attack: +10

Physical Defence: +10

Magical Defence: +5

_Special Ability:_

Critical Chance 10%

_Slots:_

Two Empty Slots.

Even his new boots and gloves were better than his old ones. This armour would allow him to move about with ease, something Naofumi knew he needed so he could go between Raphtalia and Kumiho without too much of a problem should a strong monster attack them.

"This is the first armour that I made for you, I'm working on the second now." the blacksmith informed the Shield Hero.

"Why would I need a second armour?" asked Naofumi.

"If you're going to become a bandit, you'll need a second armour so that no one can tell you are a bandit." explained Ulthane, "This armour is one of a kind, so if you go out doing crime and people see this armour, they'll know that you're the bandit attacking them. So it's wise if you have another set of armour to make it hard to connect you to the crimes."

"Hmm, that does make sense." the young man said as he thought about it, "But how long before the second set of armour will be finished?"

"Hmm, about a week or so." Ulthane said thoughtfully, "It shouldn't take too long, but I'm making this armour to be one of my best works."

"I see." said Naofumi as he thought about his future plans, "I can hold off on becoming a bandit, I do have a job lined up anyway, so I'll be fine for money for a while."

"That's good, and during that time, I would say you should get yourself and your slaves masks to make it even harder to tell it is you." explained the male Maker, "In fact, I would say get two sets of masks, one for being a bandit and one for going about the towns selling and stuff. It's not uncommon for people to hide their face for one reason or another."

"I'll do that." said Naofumi, seeing sense in the blacksmith's words.

"Now these are Imp Summoning Cores, they'll allow you to summon Imps to your side." explained Ulthane, as he gave Naofumi four red cores, three of which were encaged in gold and silver wire. Ulthane then saw that Naofumi was about to absorb the core into his shield, and quickly spoke to stop him, "I wouldn't do that."

"Why not?" asked Naofumi.

"From what Crusch told me, you already put an Imp Core into your shield." explained Ulthane, "Whilst that I don't know how the Legendary Weapons work, I don't think it would be wise to try and only to find out that you don't have a new shield. So I would advise to wait for now. You see, the ones in the cages are for Raphtalia, Kumiho and you, so that you can summon Imps whenever you want. Be warned though, it costs twenty mana points to summon them, but once they are summoned they stay around until you unsummon them or they are defeated in which case you would have to summon again."

Naofumi had to admit this was ideal seeing how none of them knew how to summon imps any other way, but three questions came to mind. So Naofumi asked the Maker, "First, other than to use some of their skills, and summon them, what are imp useful for anyway? Second, why are there four instead of three? And lastly, how can we summon them?"

"Let me answer the last question first," the blacksmith told Naofumi, "All you have to do is to push some magic into them. I know you and Raphtalia don't know how to do this unlike Kumiho, but Atla will teach you to push magic into the crystal to learn **_Fake Out_**, she'll teach you and Raphtalia how to use the Cores so you can use all cores."

Naofumi and Raphtalia nodded at this, happy that they'll learn how to use Cores, seeing how useful they can be even if you weren't an Alchemist. Seeing the nods, Ulthane went on to answer the other questions, "As for what the Imps can do for you, apart from fighting, they can spy for you, seeing how they can transform into small animals and are able to get around without much problem and without raising alarms. Not only that, but they can talk to other imps they are connected to by telepathy. So as long as you have one imp with you at all times, you can keep in contact with each other even if you are far apart. If the imps that are sent out to scout find something useful, they would also be able to get info back to you faster."

Naofumi had to admit that this was an ideal skill to have, as there might be times when they are apart in fights and needed to send info to each other for some reason. But Before Naofumi could think of his last question he wanted to ask, the blacksmith continued.

"But I have to give a warning before I say you can properly use these things," the Maker told him, "there's a reason why most people won't use them and it's because yes they are low-level creatures and are good at spying and fighting and especially good at communication, but they have a problem with them, namely that they're mischievous little buggers. They'll cause some problems if you keep them out too long or are not paying attention to them. They don't cause any big issues but they might cause you to misplace a few of your items, play a joke on you here and there, or try to convince you to do naughty things. Given your high defense and how smart you seem to be, I doubt they'll be much of a problem to you and you might get more out of them then suffer from them."

Naofumi nodded at this and then thought on what he was going to ask. When he realized he only had one unanswered question, so he asked, "What about the fourth Imp Core?"

"Ah, that one is to allow you to practice your alchemy on, so that you can use other cores when you get them." explained Ulthane, "So you know, as you use the Summoning Imp Core more and more, it'll take up less and less mana and in time you'll be able to summon more than one of them at a time. I give you a focus core as it might take time before you can learn to use the normal core. One last thing about these Summoning Cores, as these monsters defeat other monsters, they too gain EXP and over time they'll become stronger and learn new abilities too. So keep that in mind when you use them."

As Naofumi handed a Summoning Core to Raphtalia and Kumiho, he had to admit that Ulthane made sense. He didn't know how long before he could learn to use cores without some sort of focus. He might learn at the same time as learning to use the Magical Crystal to learn **_Fake Out_**. But if he couldn't, it would be useful to have a core with a focus, so he could summon an imp.

Ulthane then gave them a box. As he handed it to Naofumi, he said, "There's a few basic supplies in there with a bag of hundred silver coins from the items we sold from the materials you got for us. It should help you until you get things sorted out."

Naofumi didn't know what to say, he knew that Ulthane wouldn't take the things back. But he was thankful about the stuff though, seeing how the shopkeepers keep raising the price of the items or not selling him anything. So these supplies would be useful until he sorted things out.

Either way, Naofumi thanked the blacksmith for his help and the things that he got, he also thanked Crusch for her help, too. Without her, he didn't think he would be at the level he was now, so he was very grateful to her. After they said their goodbyes and good luck, they parted ways.

**_o0OoO0o_**

_Kingdom of Melromarc, The Forest, 16th of January 740:_

_Time to the next Wave: D15 H3 M30._

It was early morning and right now, the only person awake was Raphtalia, who was playing with her new playmate, her Imp who was flying about as she tried to catch it. The truth was she meant to be on look out, but thanks to her Master's teacher, there was little need to do much. That didn't mean she wasn't keeping an eye, but she was bored with nothing to do, so she thought she would play with her new friend as she kept an eye out for trouble. Looking at her imp friend, she thought about the night before.

The first thing that Mistress Atla taught her and Master Naofumi was how to feel the magic inside them and use it. It took a few hours before her Master and her were able to feel their magic. Well it took her an hour or so for her to do this, her Master took a bit longer to do so. She was worried that this would upset her Master, but it didn't, as he said, he wasn't from this world so it would take him longer to feel magic.

Her Master did admit that it was mainly thanks to Mistress Atla, as if she didn't use her magic around him, it might have taken longer to get the feel of magic—something Raphtalia felt the same about. You see, once her Master set up camp for them, Mistress Atla used one of her Monster Cores to twist and turn the trees around them until the area looked like a dome, with only one way in or out. Her Master's teacher explained that this was to stop anyone learning what she was teaching her Master, as they might use that against him.

As a child she wanted to believe that this wasn't true, that no one would try and hurt her new Master, but from what she could understand, it wasn't the case. People have lied about what he did, betrayed him and made his life awful. Sure she heard stories that many people were against the Shield Hero for some reason, but she never thought it would be this bad though.

Either way, once she and her Master knew how to feel and use some magic, Mistress Atla had her Master use the Magical Crystal to learn the skill known as **_Fake Out_**. What happened next she didn't fully understand it, but from what she could understand is that thanks to the Legendary Shield and to how it allowed him to become stronger, he would have an easier time learning **_Fake Out_**. As he could use something called Skill Points to make it stronger after he levelled up, seeing how he was given so many Skill Points each time he levelled up. Mistress Atla was shocked to hear this, but she knew a bit about these Skill Points and she found it useful and would like to talk to her Master about them at some other time. She wanted to learn how these Skill Points could change **_Fake Out_**.

Either way, once her Master learned **_Fake Out_**, she then learned how to use the Summoning Cores that Mister Ulthane gave to them. Kumiho seemed to be able to get hers working on the first go, but Raphtalia suspected that she had past experience with these cores so she knew how to use them. She and her Master took a bit longer, not as long as to learn to feel and use magic, but still took some time.

From here, Mistress Atla decided to end the night with teaching her Master how to read this world language, at least one version of it, the one that the humans used. Here Kumiho left to train with her sword, seeing how her body was different thanks to her levels being reset, she wanted to practice to get used to using her sword with her new body. She also wanted to work with her Imp Summons to see how she could work with it. Something their Master allowed, he even said that she could go with Kumiho and practice if she wanted, seeing how both were going to be fighting for him soon enough. Raphtalia wanted to stay, as she only started to learn to read and write and so Mistress Atla could help her along with her Master.

Her Master thought about it for a few moments, before agreeing that she could stay and learn with him. As it might be useful to him down the line if she knew how to read and write properly. Seeing how she was from this world, Raphtalia found it easier to learn the letters and words that she was being taught, but her Master had a hard time. Something that discouraged him a bit, seeing how he wanted to learn magic as soon as possible.

Mistress Atla informed her Master that if his Japanese spelling was anything like hers, then he should know that the language of this world was like that. That words are cut down to one to a few symbols instead of a few short to long words. Here she gave an example with the word home, she wrote it a few different ways, the way she knew it, and a few different ways that she couldn't understand, but her Master could.

She went on to explain to her Master that under certain situations, the way a word is written can be different and have different meanings. So whilst learning the basic languages of this world was easy enough to learn, when it comes to magical language, words that meant one thing in one book, could have a different meaning in another book.

Another thing about magical books, depending on a person's Magical Affinity and the book he might be reading, the book might have a few spells in it. So whilst one person might see one spell, another person could see another spell. Another thing they should know was that unless you are at a high enough level, some books wouldn't even allow you to learn a spell.

This was to stop people from learning magic that they weren't ready to use, as powerful magic can be dangerous if they aren't ready or strong enough. This was the same for temples and other places a person might be able to learn magic. This is why most people wanted to use Magical Crystals, as it's easier and faster to do so, and lets you learn more spells. However, unless they are very skilled at magic, it would also mean some of their magic would be weaker, seeing how that magic might not be alined with their Magical Affinity.

So if they have a Magical Affinity of say Fire, but they use Magical Crystal or find the rare books that allow them to learn Water Magic instead of Fire, that magic would be weaker than if they learned Fire Magic. Not only that, but learning from books might allow you to learn skills that you can't get from Magical Crystal, seeing how they only teach one or two magical spells.

When the reading lesson was done and they had something to eat, they got ready for bed, however, they weren't going to be sleeping all at the same time. Instead, they were going to take turns sleeping. Naorumi would take the first watch as she and Kumiho sleep, then after a few hours of sleep he would wake Kumiho to keep watch and then a few hours later Kumiho would wake her up to do the final watch. At which point depending if she was tired, she would be allowed to rest for a bit before they would get on with the day.

She did ask why they would need to keep watch, seeing how Mistress Atla created this dome for them and had set up traps so that no one could enter the place. Her Master explained that whilst they might be safe, it didn't mean the traps would hold and not let monsters in, so it would be better to be safe rather than sorry. Not only that, but this would be good practice for when they were in the wilds when they didn't have such protection. She had to admit that her Master made sense, it was good to learn somewhere safe instead of somewhere dangerous.

As she played with her imp, she thought about the day before and where she failed to attack when her Master ordered her to attack a Balloon Monster. Sure the Slave Crest punished her for it, but she was worried though. She was worried that she might freeze up again and be unable to fight, she worried that if it happens too often her Master might have her sent back to a Slave Trader. This was something she couldn't allow, she knew that if she was sent back to one of them, she wouldn't survive it.

She knew that she had to make her Master see that if she couldn't fight, he didn't have to send her away, that she still could be of some use to him. And she thought about Kumiho and the reason that her Master got her, so she thought, and knew one way to show that she could be used other than for fighting. Her second Master did start to train her to become a Sex Slave and with Kumiho being one, she could show her new Master that she too could be one of his Sex Slaves if fighting didn't work out for her. Anything that would stop her being sent back to a cold place like the Underground Slave Market.

To prevent this, she knew that she had to show him what her mother taught her in the short amount of time they were together. To show him that he didn't have to send her away if she wasn't good at fighting. She would do for him what her mother told her their Master liked to be woken up to.

**( . v . ) ( . v . )**

So going to the tent and entering the part where her Master was sleeping in, Raphtalia saw that the Shield Hero was fast asleep in one of the beds that Mistress Atla created for them. Then slowly, Raphtalia moved her hand 'til it was at the top of his pants, before she slowly started pulling them down, hoping not to wake her Master just yet. She was somewhat surprised, she wasn't expecting his dick to be so big or thick, nor his balls so large.

Knowing that she couldn't stop here at this surprise, she started, ever so slowly, to stroke her Master's dick. She noticed it getting hard and growing even larger as she did so. While stroking him slowly, she maneuvered her head 'til it was completely resting on his stomach, about four inches from his cock, which was at this point hard as a rock.

It was at this point that she started to become frustrated, this was the first time that she would have a real cock in her mouth. Slowly she pressed her lips up against her Master's cock. Taking one final breath, she opened her mouth and placed part of the head of her Master's cock inside.

To her shock though, her Master seemed to moan softly in pleasure at this, but yet he seemed to still be asleep. She began to suck his cock, bobbing her head up and down, but seeing it was her first time doing so, she couldn't get as much in as she wanted. Then to her surprise, she felt her Master's hands land softly onto the back of her head and started to pet her.

"Oh Mandy," Naofumi moaned in his sleep, "you're such a good girl."

Raphtalia was a bit worried that her Master was awake, and if that was the case, after realizing what was going on he would push her away before she could show him what she could do. But hearing him calling out another name, whilst saddening her that it wasn't hers, made her happy, too. She would have more time before he wakes and either push her away or let her continue.

Raphtalia didn't know if he was dreaming deeply or if he was only half-asleep, thinking that he was with his love back home. The thought saddened her, but right now he wasn't pushing her away. Before she could think about this much more, her Master's hand started to push her further down onto his cock.

At first, she was shocked at this action. She had to force herself to remember to keep her mouth open, and cock her head so her throat was straight, just like her mother told her to. This was so that she wouldn't immediately gag on her Master's dick, which was hard and brought tears to her eyes.

The excitement she felt for doing such a thrilling act while having her master's cock fill her mouth, was equally matched by her fear of messing up and upsetting her savior and hero. This led her to resolutely try her best to ignore the burning feeling in the back of her throat and continue doing as her mother told her to. Rubbing her tongue over his dick while softly rubbing at his balls. She hoped that when her Master woke up, he would be pleased about this and wouldn't be angry and send her back to the slavers where she would slowly and painfully die.

With her Master now moving his cock in and out of her mouth, after a while she started to taste a slightly salty fluid coming out of the end of his dick in an endless stream and figured he was cumming in her mouth. She couldn't help but feel a heat growing between her legs at the thought of her Master cumming in her mouth, especially since the taste wasn't unpleasant at all.

To her surprise though, he was now starting to get a little rougher, sliding his cock all the way in and out of her mouth. Her lips were now being stretched obscenely around her Master's cock. The tip of his head was hitting the back of her throat, making it hard to breath. She began breathing through her nose which helped her, somewhat.

"Oh Mandy, that feels so good," Naofumi moaned with pleasure, as he increased the pace, "you make me so happy."

Because she thought he had cum in her mouth already, she was in no way ready for what was about to happen. He had developed a steady pace going in and out of her mouth, he was now meeting his thrusting cock with her face. His dick then got noticeably harder and fatter and as the skin on his balls tightened. Her tongue was gliding over the front and side of his cock head.

"Oh yes, take Mandy, take my cum, take it all." Naofumi moaned in delight.

Raphtalia felt his cock start to pulse and surge in her mouth, when all of a sudden, it exploded. Huge blasts of thick, clumpy sperm were fired at such velocity that while trying to recover from the first shot, a second caught in the back of her throat causing her to choke and cough. This in turn caused her to pull back sharply, coughing into her hands hard enough to where cum actually came out her nose. It was similar to getting water up your nose, only in reverse.

For a second, as she was coughing, Raphtalia thought she was going to throw up. But as she was coughing, she accidentally fell off the bed and landed onto the ground. As she knelt on the ground to get herself up, she began to cough and wheeze, spitting up all of Naofumi cum onto the bed, not noticing that she accidentally threw up a little bit of it onto his shield which absorbed a little bit of it and unknowingly created a new shield: **_Desire Shield!_**

As she finished coughing, believing that her Master was still half-asleep and thinking that she was someone else, she got undressed, hoping that her Master wouldn't gain his senses just yet. Once she was undressed, she got onto her Master and placed herself above her Master's cock.

But as she lowered herself so that his cock was in her, she decided that she would give her Master a kiss first. But that seemed to be the wrong thing to do, as the moment that their lips met, her Master's eyes widened as he realized what was going on. "What do you think you're doing!?" Naofumi shouted out in shock and confusion, as he pushed her off him.

**( . v . ) ( . v . )**

**_o0OoO0o_**

Naofumi was feeling a bit weird, he was in his room, just awoken from his first wonderful dream since he got to his damn world. He was dreaming of Mandy Rose, an English student at his school that moved to Japan a few years back. For the last few months, they were hitting it off every now and then, nothing serious, but they enjoyed each other's company. Now he was dreaming that they were back in his room having some _fun _together, but then the room changed and he had the most realistic dream ever, where Mandy gave him a blowjob.

She never liked it, but every so often she might give him one when she was in the mood or wanted something from him. But in his dreams, he sometimes had better blowjobs than in real life, sometimes he didn't, this time she was doing a so, so job at it.

Now as he was about to get to the fun part of the dream, where he was going to fuck her hard, like she liked it, someone coughed loudly. This woke him up fully as he saw his young slave, Raphtalia, lowering herself so that his cock entered her. It took a few moments for his brain to catch onto what he was seeing, but as she lowered herself to kiss and their lips met, all he could do was push her off him and out of shock and confusion called out, "What do you think you're doing!?"

**_To be Continued! _**

**_Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END:_** Here ends another chapter of Rising of the Shield Demon, I would like to thank you for reading this chapter and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I'm sorry for the wait, but I had problems with motivation with everything that's going on lately. It's bad enough that I'm a slow writer as it is, but when you have no motivation to write, it is even harder.

After reading your feedback and thinking about it, I've decided to do the Lust Shield a bit differently. Yes there'll be one, in fact, two. The first will be from the Curse Series version of the weapon, but there'll be a non-cursed version too. This one will be created from three different shields: Tantric Shield, Desire Shield and one unnamed shield, when all three shields are created, it'll create a new shield, the Lust Shield.

The thing is, I need your help with creating the last sex shield before the Lust Shield can appear. This one will come from a solo female cum, so I would like an idea for the name of the shield as well as what powers it should have. I hope you can help me with this.

Now I would like to point out a few things thanks to a review that I had in the last chapter, first off, seeing how I'm making Naofumi evil, I'm not sure if there'll be romance, seeing how he doesn't know who to trust. But if there is any, I'm not sure how it'll work until I write them, as I don't plan things out other than the basic plot, I normally write as I go and see what happens as I write each chapter. The harem will be mainly slaves, if there's any romance, I won't know until I write it.

As for character building, the important characters like Raphtalia and Renka, I'm planning to give them growth and struggles. So you know, Naofumi won't be treating Ratphllia like a daughter nor like a little sister, but a tool at first and then, I'm not sure, most likely an ally.

I would like your thoughts about Naofumi's Perfect Balance ability, how powerful should I have it? Should I keep it so that he is great with balance so that motion sickness wouldn't be a problem for him and he can't lose his balance, or should I also have it so that he wouldn't have any problems with gravity magic too?

I would like your thoughts about something, do you think that I'm making things too easy, making Naofumi too strong too fast? I ask as the Raven, a friend who's helping me, believes that I'm giving him too many powerful items and making him too strong and making things easier. If you do think this, please give me ideas on how I can make things harder for Naofumi.

How would you feel if at some point, most likely after delivering the slaves, I have Kumiho transform into Bitch to get a reaction out of her master, where seeing Bitch makes him lose it and he fucks her hard? I want to do this so that Kumiho can make it clear to Naofumi that people already sees him as a criminal, so he shouldn't worry about fucking Raphtalia, even though as his slave, no one would, normally, have no problem with it.

Now Raven thinks I shouldn't do this, even if the action was because of the Rage Shield. As he doesn't think Naofumi would gain a boner, instead he would want to punch their face in instead of screwing them, and if you go with that you put in the whole idea of having sex as a punishment instead of a reward.

He believes that if I go down that route, I would be basically making most of the sexual encounters between him and all of his other slaves mostly abusive. This is something I disagree with seeing how I'm planning to have the Rage Shield take control a bit, seeing how it only has been a week since everything and still angry, so the Rage Shield had more to work with.

He also believes that by doing this, I would actually set up for the queen to actually be able to push her on to him later on as a slave and save her from any death sentence as long as she gets pregnant with his child. I disagree, whilst I do have plans for the bitch, I'm having it so that the Second Princess be with him first so the Queen can't do anything. But he doesn't believe I should even hint at an idea of this.

However, before I decide to do anything, I would like to hear your thoughts about this idea. Would you like to see it, or do you too believe I would be basically making most of the sexual encounters between him and all of his other slaves mostly abusive?


	15. Chapter 14

_**Author's Note:**_ Before we start, I would like to ask you something, I got two reviews that bothered me and would like your thoughts about this. The first one says that I'm thinking too much about sex for this to be a decent story, I don't know why this is, seeing how there have only been two sex scenes in this story and I was making sure people would be okay with Raphtalia.

The other said that they figured that this story was going to decline, seeing how there was hardly any decent plot. Just sex and making Naofumi into an Edgelord that treats a ten-year-old demi-human as a sex tool. First off, I would like to point out that for those who actually read this story: you would know, and as I've said, there were only TWO scenes in the story. So how can the story be only about sex? Next, in this chapter, you'll see that he isn't going to make Raphtalia into a sex tool, but a fighter.

He might be what you call an Edgelord, but after what he has been though, can you blame him for it? After everything, he has been through? And have you forgotten what this story is going to be about? Naofumi will become evil and slowly becomes a demon, so he'll become edgy. Don't forget, that even in the original story, he was like an Edgelord in it.

Last, the reviewer said if I don't make the protagonist relatable in some way, then most readers that aren't horny will see through the story.

So I would like to know, honestly, do you agree, and if so, how would you fix it?

_**Chapter Fourteen…**_

"I ask you again, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" Naofumi asked angrily when Raphtalia didn't answer him, at once. He was upset at what she did, it only has been a week since the damn Bitch Princess framed him for rape and since then, his life in this world is nothing but an uphill battle. He didn't even know if he would ever be interested in sex again, out of fear that next person he did it with would turn out to be like Bitch.

Feeling that the crest was building up power to punish her for not answering her Master's question, Raphtalia answered, "For... forgive me, Master, but I wanted to show you that even if I can't fight for you, that I can be some sort of use to you and you wouldn't throw me away."

"What are you talking about?" Naofumi asked confused, "Why would you even think that this would even work?"

"I fear that I'm no good at fighting and fear you might throw me away," Raphtalia tried to explain to her Master, "but I thought that if I could show you that I could do just what Kumiho can do for you, you wouldn't get rid of me."

"And why would you think that having sex with me would work?" Naofumi asked darkly, not very pleased at the answer.

Sure he felt sorry for the young girl a bit, as she had a rough night, screaming in her sleep and crying out for her father and mother. Whilst he wondered what sort of life she had, other than to hold her as she screamed out, he couldn't bring himself to ask why. It had nothing to do with him, as long as this didn't interfere with her fighting. Part of him didn't like it, but he needed a slave to fight for him.

She also reminded him of the girl in his dreams, but unless he had his book he couldn't be sure about it. She might look like her a bit, but that doesn't mean she was the same person though. Already a few things won't be the same from his dreams, like Kumiho, she never was in his dreams nor was the Makers or Crusch. So he couldn't tell if this Raphtalia would be the same one from his dreams.

Even if she was, how he felt right now about people, he didn't know if he could trust her even if she would be loyal to him. The only thing he knew right now was that for him to trust people, they had to prove to him that they can be trusted before he could trust them. Thanks to everything that happened to him, all he knew was one simple thing unless they proved that they can be trusted, the only one he could trust was himself.

Right now with what Raphtalia just did, trying to trick him into having sex with her, wasn't something he could say was trustworthy. If she talked to him about this before, he would be more understanding, but right now the only thing that was keeping him from sending her back to the Slaver was that he needed all the help he could get.

"Because of Kumiho, Master." the young girl explained, "You brought her as a Sex Slave, so I thought that if I could do just as good a job as her, you wouldn't throw me away. You would keep me as a Sex Slave instead of a fighter."

Naofumi sighed deeply at this, any frustration that he had on the matter left him. Yes, he was still pissed, but hearing this he didn't know what to think. He didn't think that buying a Sex Slave would bring him this much trouble, nor thought that a ten-year-old would think of such a thing so not to be thrown back to the Slaver. He knew that he would have to deal with this now, to make her understand.

"Listen Raphtalia, whilst I did decide to get Kumiho because she was a Sex Slave, that's only part of the reason. In fact, I may not use her for that part of her job at all." Naofumi informed the young girl.

"What do you mean, Master?" asked Raphtalia, feeling a bit confused, why would he buy a Sex Slave if he wasn't going to have sex with her. "Why would you get her if you're not going to have sex?"

"Simply put, she was free and it would give me another fighter, something that I needed if I wanted to survive in this world." explained Naofumi, "This would give us more options to get more experience when we fight, which will help us get stronger so much faster."

As Raphtalia thought about it, she thought back to a time when she heard her father teaching a group of people about fighting monsters. He explained that whilst fighting in groups would make it easier to defeat monsters, that's not why it was important to fight in groups. No, the reason that they fought in groups was to get more experience, depending on how a group works together, they would be able to get more EXP. So if people were in a group of five, they would normally be able to get more EXP than say two people working together.

Her father warned the group that that wasn't always the case as if the group were weak they might get less experience than two experienced fighters. So he told them that it was always best to stay strong, able to work well with those you're fighting with and keeping your weapons decent.

"I think I get it, Master." Raphtalia said thoughtfully, but there was still part of her, even if she didn't fully understand it herself, wanted to have sex with her Master. So wanting to see if there's any chance of it some time down the line, she asked, "M... Master, about s... sex, are you every go... going to have it, a... again."

Part of Raphtalia knew that it was foolish to be embarrassing to act like this after what she did, but to her though, it was one thing having sex, but it was another talking about it. So sure she was embarrassed about it, she just hoped her Master wouldn't be bothered about it.

Naofumi did, in fact, find it a bit strange, but then again he knew that people were fine having sex, but when it came about talking about it, some found it hard to do so. So he just put Raphtalia down to one of those people, that and she was a child.

"To be honest, no I don't think I'll ever have sex again." Naofumi admitted darkly, another thing that made him angry with this kingdom, he used to love sex, but thanks to Bitch and the kingdom, he didn't think he could ever have it again. "After what the Bitch Princess did to me and how people have been treating me since, I'm afraid to do so. As I fear that the next woman might do the same, accuse me of rape when it isn't and having people turn on me when nothing happened. So I decided that to stop the risk of it happening again, I'll not have sex again."

"Y... you do know that as a slave, you can have s... sex with Kumiho without anyone saying anything about it." the young girl pointed out, leaving out that he could do the same with her seeing how she didn't want to show that she was eager to have sex with him.

"Oh you would think so wouldn't you?" Naofumi asked darkly as he thought about it, "But I wouldn't be surprised that the kingdom would turn it around on me and say that I used the fact that you were slaves to force you to have sex with me, even though the law would be on my side. They would try and paint me in a bad light about it. That's not counting the other heroes, as if their world is anything like mine, slavery is outlawed and so they would turn against me more than they already have. They have problems that I have slaves already, even if it's the only way for me to level up, if they heard that I was having sex with one, even with a child, my life would be more difficult then it already is. The heroes might even try and kill me over it."

Raphtalia was a bit shocked that slavery was outlawed in her Master's world, here it was a way of life. Sure there are a rare few who have fought against it, but way too many had slaves and they wouldn't want to give them up. Not only that, but most of the slaves were criminals, it was one way to punish them. Instead of sending them to jail, they would serve those who they committed the crime against, it was a sort of justice. Having those who committed the crime, serve those who they wronged, or that's what her father told her once when she asked about why there was slavery. Although there was a dark side to slavery, it also brought justice to their world, so to take it away would create more problems than solutions.

Now before she could think more about this though, her Master told her, "Either way, I don't want to talk nor think about this, so get dressed, we have things to do today."

Not wanting to anger her Master any more, that's what she did, as her Master got dressed too. Little did they know at the time, Kumiho heard this conversation and was angry, herself. This kingdom had done more damage than they possibly knew, even if they did know, they wouldn't care, they would think it was a good thing. As they would think that the Shield Hero could bring more demons into this world in the form of his children.

Kumiho knew that if the Shield Hero stayed in this world, there would be many who want to marry him and have his kids, as it would be a sign of power and respect. In fact, she knew that be it one of the Cardinal Heroes or the Vassal Heroes, they are looked upon with great respect and often have many wives, slaves and concubines. This was so their name would live on and hoping that if the Vassal Weapons were ever needed, one of Cardinal Hero's descendants would be able to wield one of them.

The Kingdom of Siltvelt wanted a few women to marry the last Shield Hero, but before anything could be done about it, the Hero died. No one knew how he died, some thought it was an ambush from another kingdom, some thought that he died from some powerful monster that caught him. There was even a rumour saying that the demi-humans killed the last Shield Hero because they didn't want him to side with another kingdom, or because they couldn't control him and so they killed him.

Whilst no one knew the truth, the death of the last Shield Hero created much mistrust between the Kingdom of Siltvelt and the rest of the kingdoms. As they believed that Siltvelt was behind the death of the last Shield Hero, even if they didn't have any proof to back it up. Many in Siltvelt believed that the death of the Shield Hero just gave the other kingdoms a reason to hate and mistrust them all because of them being demi-humans.

Whatever the case, Kumiho knew that it was the leaders of Siltvelt, and was hoping that this new Shield Hero would marry a few of their daughters to gain power and respect from those in their kingdom and other kingdoms. But it would seem that thanks to the Kingdom of Melromarc, as thanks to their Princess's action along with their people's, he has no interest in women.

Whilst she was nothing more than her Master's slave, a tool to be used as her Master wants and had little power to do much against it, Kumiho wanted to help not only her former homeland but her Master too. But the thing was she didn't have any ideas on how to do so, she would have to figure something out later, for now, she had to move before he realized that she had heard anything.

_**o0OoO0o**_

It was about an hour later, and the three of them had not long since finished eating their breakfast when Atla appeared at their camp. Here he had Kumiho and Raphtalia return to the Black Market to get masks for the three of them, he even drew a mask he would like them to get for him if possible, it was something he thought about the night before. He also asked them to get him a hook of some kind, it was something he meant to get the day before, but he forgot to do so. And finally, he had them level up for the next few hours as he trained with Atla.

Once he was sure that they were gone, he set down next to Atla and asked, "Before we start my training, would it be okay if I asked you a few things?"

"I have no problem with that Shield Hero." Atla agreed.

"Well first, do you know anything about clairvoyance?" asked the young man.

"Ah, I was wondering if you were going to ask me about this, Ulthane informed me that you might ask me this." Atla explained, then seeing the betrayal in the Shield Hero's eyes, she quickly went on to say, "He didn't tell me for the hell of it, he told me because I know more about clairvoyance and believed that you might ask about it and should I know it, I would be ready to explain a thing about it."

Naofumi was unhappy about this, but at least Atla could tell him more about this ability of his, so he asked, "So what can you tell me about clairvoyance?"

"The first thing you need to know is that whilst it has a few useful abilities if you can learn them, but seeing the future is the most useless of those skills." Atla told him her thoughts about the skill to see the future.

"What do you mean?" Naofumi asked, confused, why would seeing the future be useless? "I would have thought that seeing the future would be useful."

"You would think so wouldn't you," admitted the Maker, "but the skill is the most dangerous of the skills, it is a double edge sword sort of skill. For example what if you had two dreams, one of you getting your slaves and the other is where you have a dream about the First Princess and what she did to you. Now you would try and stop what the princess did to you wouldn't you."

"Of course, I would have." the Shielder told her.

"But if you did, you wouldn't have gotten Raphtalia or Kumiho." Atla told the young man in front of her.

"Of course I would have, I still would have needed to find allies and such." Naofumi told her, thinking that he would still have ended up with them.

"Oh really? Why would you need slaves if you stopped what the princess did to you?" asked Atla, "If the First Princess didn't frame you and you still had a good standing, you wouldn't have been pushing people away. You would have money to hire people to help you, you wouldn't have been sending people away, so demi-humans from countries would have come to you to help you. You wouldn't have needed slaves to fight for you, as you would not have to take the darker route to get things done."

As Naofumi thought about it for the next few minutes, he began to realize that Atla was right. The only reason that he got Raphtalia was because of the Slave Trader came to him because people planned it that way, the same with Kumiho. Because he didn't have a hard time, he wouldn't have needed Raphtalia and she could have ended up dead, and Kumiho might not have been sent to him as whoever sent her would have come to him personally seeing how he wasn't sending people away from him.

"That's the thing with seeing the future with clairvoyance and any other ability that allows you to see the future, you don't always get the full picture." explained the Maker, "You would only get bits and pieces of it, or one of a possible future, not knowing the full story or which future would happen. As you realize, once you take action and try to prevent one future happening, you could prevent another future from happening or you could make what you were trying to prevent worse. It's the same if you saw something good, whilst you might not do anything different, you'll subconsciously do things differently, train in a different way to help out or talk to different people to get to that point sooner. In doing so, you could start a new set of events that could be better or worse than you might hope for or you might make it so that these events don't happen at all."

"Are you saying that I shouldn't use this ability to see the future?" Naofumi asked the woman, wondering what she was getting at.

"No, seeing how you have it, you should use it," Alta told the Shield Hero, "all I'm saying is that you should be careful with it. You should think about your actions, think would your actions prevent another vision you might have seen to happen or make things worse and such things. Unless you see yourself in the visions and your hub is up with the date and time on it, I would take what you see with a pinch of salt."

"What do you mean?" ask Naofumi, not too sure what the lady was getting at.

"You see, with clairvoyance not only can you see the future, but the past too." explained the Maker, "So you might see things that might have happened already, so unless you know for sure that it's connected to your present or future, you should be careful. I should say that with that clairvoyance, the only time it's useful is if you know if you can tell when a key event might happen."

"Key events?" asked the Shield Hero.

"Yeah, things that can't be changed by actions, things like the Waves, earthquakes and other natural disasters." Atla told him, "These events will happen no matter what you do to prevent them. So if someone with clairvoyance can see these events and get a date, they can plan what to do when they happen."

"What happens if I don't see the date?" asked the black haired hero.

"Then you do nothing," Atla told him simply, "as the events might have already happened or might not happen for weeks, months or even years from now. The only thing you can do in cases of seeing the Waves is to prepare so that if you face that Wave, you would be ready for it and have a plan of action. It would be a waste of time and resources to do otherwise unless you know for sure when the event will happen."

As Naofumi thought about it, it made some sense that if he didn't have the date of what meant to happen, other than plan for what might happen, there wasn't much he could do about it until if or when it happens. In a way, he could understand why the Maker saw it as a useless ability if you don't have the dates to help you.

"I should warn you though, you should be wary of those you tell about being a clairvoyant, not even joke about it around strangers." Atla warned the young man in front of her,

Depending on the level of the clairvoyant it could be the difference between everyone calling them a crackpot to everyone in the whole world trying to get a piece of them with or without their free will being involved," Atla said in a dead-serious tone.

"You can't be serious?" Naofumi asked in shock, "You're telling me that clairvoyance can be that powerful? I thought that it was useless?"

"No, I said the ability to see the future is useless, as there are too many variables out there that can alter said future. As the future is forever changing depending on one's actions." explained Atla, "Many fools don't see this, they only see a way to alter one's future, never realizing that it could make things worse instead of better. But that's not the only reason a clairvoyant is sought out, clairvoyance can find people and items as long as they got something connected to that person/item. If they have an item of the past, they can get a clear picture of the past, and if the rumours are true, sometimes the future too. But you already know my feelings about that. These are just a few things that a clairvoyant can do."

"I highly doubt I could do any of that," a sceptical Naofumi told her, "all my versions of the future come from dreams, and I have difficulties remembering them when I wake up. I have to quickly draw them down before I forget about them. The main thing that I remember is Raphtalia and a young blond haired girl by the name of Filo. But in none of the dreams do I remember seeing you, Ulthane, Crusch or Kumiho. Not only that, but I meant to work with another blacksmith, one that hates me in this world unlike in my dreams."

"I see, so you have what is known as Dream Scrying, which makes it difficult for the clairvoyant to remember, or decipher the dreams." Alta informed the Shielder, "There are methods to help you to remember your dreams, make them clearer. As for me, Ulthane, Crusch or Kumiho not being in my dreams, there's one of two reasons for this. The first is that we didn't make an impact on your dreams so that you wouldn't remember us that much."

"I find that hard to believe," Naofumi told her, "at the moment you four have been a great help for me, more so than Raphtalia I'm sorry to say. Maybe she becomes better in time, which I do hope, but right now you four have been a great help and I find it hard that you wouldn't be in my dreams."

"Which leads to my second option, you could have been dreaming of yourself from an alternate universe and timeline." explained the Maker, "This is rare to happen with a clairvoyant, but not unheard of. You do know that you and the other heroes are from an alternate universe?"

"Yes, this is something I learned the first night here in this damn world." Naofumi admitted darkly, "But what does it have to do with my dreams?"

"So seeing how there are alternate universes, don't you think it's possible for there to be other yous, in different timelines?" asked Atla, "And in these worlds and timelines, the other yous have gone through the same thing that you are, but things happened a bit differently. Where we aren't in it, only Raphtalia."

"But why would I be dreaming about them? Why not have dreams with you lot in it?" Naofumi asked Atla, unable to understand why this would happen.

"Honestly I don't know." admitted the Maker, "Clairvoyance is a subject that no one really understands, no one knows why it gives the visions that it does to people. The only thing that I suspect that no matter what happens, even though the people you work with are different, the events that you see are more or less the same in each timeline and world, so the powers might show you the future that's more helpful, show you the vision that might be more helpful to you or they are too lazy to show you your own future. Who knows. Just another reason that I don't like fortune-telling, don't always give you visions clearly enough to figure out. Just enough information for you to try and figure out for yourself."

Naofumi had to admit that seeing the future wasn't all that he thought he believed, there were so many things to think about when you see it. How by his own or someone else's actions, that future could change drastically either for the best or worse, depending on what was done. Whilst Naofumi was more than happy to stop anything bad happening to him or to the few allies he gained, knowing his luck though, any changes could be for the worse. So he knew that if he saw anything in his dreams about the future again, he would be very careful about his actions, so not to make things worse.

"Either way, let's move on," said Atla, wanting to move things along, "I know this isn't any of my business to tell you what to do, but I think that you should try and prove people wrong about how they see you."

"Why is that?" asked Naofumi, "They believe whatever lies that the king and his bitch of a daughter tells them, why would they believe me? Why should I even try?"

"Listen, I know you want to give up on them and become some sort of anti-hero or some villain who only helps during the Waves, which I can understand." Atla told him with a sigh, "But right now this world, with the demons that they already have trying to ruin things along with the Waves of Catastrophe going on, they don't need another thing making things harder."

"So what?" asked the Shielder darkly, "They are more than happy to believe any lie about me because of whatever the past Shield Hero might have done to make them believe that the Shield Hero is a demon. Why should I try?"

"Because they don't know you," explained the female Maker, "all they know are the stories and what they are told. To make them see differently, you'll have to prove them wrong, show them that you're not the demon and the stories are a lie." the Maker told the young man, part of her, was hoping that this would make him think about things before doing something he might regret later down the line.

Atla could see that Naofumi was conflicted with this, how could he not with everything that he has been though. And whilst it wasn't her race's place to interfere with the balance and what people do, she knew that at the moment they didn't need another problem with the Waves of Catastrophe going on. What happens afterwards would be up to fate, but right now she needed to do something that would make sure this world survived the Waves. Having one of the heroes going down a dark path wasn't going to help, so she had to do something to make sure that didn't happen. She didn't want to lose another Home World.

"I know what I'm asking isn't easy to do, but doing the right thing and forgiving those who wronged you isn't always easy." the Maker told the young hero, hoping to calm him down and hope he would do the right thing, at least until the Waves were dealt with. "If you find it hard to do so, think of this way, by trying to show them that you're not the person that people make you out to be, it should make things easier for you. That's what you want isn't it, an easier time whilst you're here."

As much as Naofumi hated to admit it, he knew that the Maker was right, he didn't want to have too many problems if he could help it. Sure he had plans of becoming a bandit to gain money and get things, but right now with how he and his slaves were right now, they weren't strong enough to do so. They could be easily defeated if they weren't careful. So if he wanted an easier time, it might be easier to clear things up.

But there was a part of him that wondered if it was worth it, this world has made it hard for him to trust anyone in it. He had to wonder if it was worth it, to do so. He had to wonder why he should prove himself, he didn't do a thing wrong, he wasn't to blame if these fools believe these lies instead of learning the truth for themselves.

But the image of Raphtalia popped into his head and made him think. He didn't know why it happened, seeing how she meant to be his tool. Maybe it was because of Atla being there, trying to keep him on the right path. But what was left of his innocence, he saw a small and innocent child that needed to be protected, and if it was in him to make it so that he could make things easier for her, he would. Sure he would need her to fight for him, but he would at least try and make it a little easier on her when he can, as long as she kept on fighting for him.

Sure he would try and protect the young girl, but he wasn't going to do it for free. He needed to get stronger, so he would need Raphtalia to do her fair share in helping to fight and help him level up. This world taught him more than one thing, apart from not trusting people, the other is that he should never do anything for free. So whilst he was willing to protect her, he wasn't going to do it for free.

"I'll be honest with you Atla, I don't see the point of proving that I'm the good guy here, they aren't worth it, seeing how they rather listen to lies than finding out the truth themselves. But I'll try." Naofumi told her with a deep sigh, "But I'm only doing it as a way to thank you and because I want to be able to get things without too much of a problem, not because I trust the fools in this world or anything like that. But I'll warn you now, if they push me too far they can go to hell for all I care. I'll do my job in dealing with the Waves, but during each Wave, the people can go fuck themselves for all I care."

"That's fair enough." Alta told him simply, now wanting to push it. She knew that this was as good as she was going to get it if she pushed it too much he might tell her where to go and go down a darker path much sooner. She could only hope that no one would be foolish enough to make the Shield Hero even angrier than he already was, she hoped that the king knew better than to push Naofumi too much. But deep down she knew that she only brought the world a bit more peace, as she knew and feared that the king and his foolish first daughter did something foolish and push the Shielder too far. It wasn't if, but when they did something. She could only hope that by the time it happens, the Shield Hero has had enough time to heal and wouldn't do something he might regret - although she feared it was too late for him to heal. But she could only hope.

"Anyway, the last question I have is this, do you know much about these Legendary Weapons?" Naofumi asked his final question, "I've asked Ulthane, but he said that other than knowing that other than your Elders creating them for some deity who empowered them with powers."

"Sadly no, I know just as much as that. Although this is only my guess, I believe that there are other Legendary Weapons, created by other Makers. Lost in other worlds that were destroyed because of the Waves." Atla informed Naofumi her thoughts about the Legendary Weapons.

"Why do you think there are other Legendary Weapons?" asked Naofumi.

"Think about it for a minute," the Maker told the hero, "there have been four attacks since my people have been here, each time fighting different worlds. How would the other worlds defend themselves without Legendary Weapons of their own? Each time, the same Legendary and Vassal Weapons are used to defend this world. Whilst I don't know about the Legendary Weapons themselves, Vassal Weapons are often used in times of war. So that rules out them going to other worlds to be used, so I believe it's the same for the Legendary Weapons. Meaning that there were other weapons made by different Makers from different worlds. When the worlds lost their battles, either whoever this deity/god is, either kept the weapons so as not to allow them to fall into hands of people they didn't want them to have them or left them in the dead world."

As Naofumi listened to this theory, it did make some sense, if like the two Makers believe other worlds were going through the same thing, they would need their own weapons to defend themselves. So whilst they might share some of the Legendary Weapons, they would need their own Vassal Weapons, so it would make sense there were more weapons out there somewhere.

As he was thinking about this, Atla asked, "Why did you want to know if I knew anything about them?"

"Well you see…" began Naofumi as he explained his reasoning, about how he could use Kitamura's idea of copying weapons, but couldn't use Amaki's idea for looting, crafting and inventory, whilst Kawasumi could and most likely Kitamura. "So I was wondering if one of the powers of the Legendary Weapons was something to do with the power of belief?" Naofumi finished telling his reasonings, "I was able to use Kitamura's idea as I had no reason to not to believe him, but when it was time to test Amaki's idea out, I couldn't use hers. At that, I had no reason to believe anything that she had to say, seeing how I lost all trust in what she told me. After thinking about it for a while now, I was wondering if the power of belief was needed to use the ability."

"Hmm, to be honest, I have no idea if the powers of the weapons are belief-based or not," Atla admitted thoughtfully as she thought about it, "not that it isn't possible. In fact, as I think about it, it would make a lot of sense if it was possible."

"Why do you say that?" asked Naofumi, wondering what she was thinking.

"Well you see, from what I heard about the past Heroes of Legend, they all had their own way to power up their weapons, each different to the other." Atla explained thoughtfully, "At first, I didn't take much notice of it and it didn't concern me as long as they did their job and saved this world. But now that you bring up the power of belief, I think that is the reason that each Strengthening Method was different, it was all because that's how they believed how they should power their weapons up. And because they didn't figure this out in the past, that could explain why they weren't strong enough to the Wave and the Guardian Beasts had to be used."

This was interesting to Naofumi, if it was true and belief was part of powering up the weapons, then it could be a game-changer. Because as long as he believed that he could use it to become stronger, he would have to be careful though, as he could create something that could put him into danger instead of helping him. "Do you think that if I believed there was some sort of side-effects, it would come to the Strengthening Method?"

"If you're right about the belief-based power, then if you believe that there is a side-effect, you could get it too," Atla said thoughtfully.

So with that, believing what Renka told him on that first night here, Naofumi tried to use her tips. It was hard, as each time he thought that he got past what happened with her, memories and doubt crept into the back of his mind and made it hard to believe in her idea. It took him half an hour before he finally made a breakthrough and got what he wanted.

_**Inventory Storage (Acquire)**_

_**Creation (Acquire)**_

_**Looting (Acquire)**_

Naofumi smiled at this, so the Legendary Weapons powers were based on belief, that meant that anything was possible as long as you believed it could. But as he thought before, this could lead to getting things that could hinder him instead of helping him, so he would have to be careful about this. As he wasn't sure he could get rid of a skill that didn't help him.

When Atla learned that it worked and he could have his shield create things, she told him that he should only use the creation part of the shield on things he already knew. As with alchemy, whilst making mistakes can be dangerous, it could also give them better potions too, giving them better stats than the original ones did. So she advised him that unless they needed potions in an emergency, he should always create the potions and such by hand, and use the shield when they don't have time to do so or needed it at once.

As Naofumi thought about it, it did make sense, in some games back home, should he make mistakes in creating something whilst most of the time he failed to create something, there were times he created something else. Sometimes better, and sometimes weaker, it was based on luck. So he would create potions by hand, only doing them with his shield if he was busy, needed a lot of them or needed them in an emergency.

As for looting, other than a few balloon skins, wolf fur and a few other things, when he looted the items, he didn't get much from the monsters. Mainly he got a few potions and some basic items, some that he already had, which he could sell. Now that he had this looting system, apart for the first few times to get new shields, he wouldn't have to dissect the monsters as often, which meant he would have more time to kill more of them and gain EXP.

As he got these new systems up, he noticed that he had a new shield, one that he didn't have before going to sleep: _**Desire Shield!**_ The shield, like the last sex shield, was round, but instead of a picture of two people sexually intertwined with each other, this shield had a heart with flames around it.

_**The Desire Shield!**_

_Equipment Bonus:_

Sexual Stamina Up (Unmastered)

Body Modification (medium) (Unmastered)

Stamina Up (small) (Unmastered)

Health Regeneration (small) (Unmastered)

_Special Ability:_

Sexual Inducement.

Naofumi was shocked to find that this was another sex shield, he had to wonder just what Raphtalia had done to him that morning for this shield to be unlocked. Now that he had time to calm down about it, he realized that he enjoyed the feeling of Raphtalia's mouth around his cock. Whilst he knew that he should feel sick at the thought, seeing how she was a child, for some reason he couldn't, instead he felt like he enjoyed it. This made him sick, sick at the thought of not being sick. He had to wonder what was going on with him, did this world turn him into a lolicon somehow, or had he always been one, but because of the laws and such in his world, he never realized it seeing how he blocked the idea? He didn't know how to feel about this.

Whatever the case, he would sort his feelings out later, for now, as much as he was confused about his feelings, he was glad to have the shield. As it gave him some more stamina so he could fight longer, not only that but it also gave him Health Regeneration, with luck it would heal his injuries as well as his health points, only time would tell. Same with Body Modification, he had no idea what this would do to him, he hoped that it wasn't his cock though, as thanks to his last sex shield, it already has gotten bigger. He really didn't want it to become any bigger. As for _**Sexual Inducement**_, he had no idea what that skill does, he would have to test it out to find out.

Once he saw this new shield, he kept it up for the next few hours to master the abilities as Atla began to teach him a few potions and teach him some basic moves. Not only that, but they talked about how to deal with the _**Fake Out**_ ability. Atla suggested that he set it so that it wouldn't raise any questions seeing how his stats seem to be different to everyone else's. So he decided he would allow his real stats to be shown with his fake identity, but his fake stats with his true self, this way no one should be able to learn the truth about the two.

It was around lunchtime when Raphtalia and Kumiho, at which point Naofumi was happy to see that they were able to go up by two levels. This was useful, they also explained that during this time, they did some training too, teaching Raphtalia how to dodge the monster's attack. The same thing that he did, whilst he might hate the Bitch, he was glad that she helped him there.

Even now he was confused as to why she would help him only to betray him, was it so that he would lower his guard so that she could betray him? Or was there another reason, something that changed during their time together? He would never know for sure, just that the Bitch betrayed him in the end and created the person he was now and becoming.

Either way, once they returned, Naofumi started to make some lunch for them. During that time, Kumiho and Raphtalia showed him what they got. They got him five masks, the first mask was as he wanted, in fact, they had gotten him two of them, they were old fashioned masks from the Venetian time, known as the plague masks, here they were known as the _**Alchemist Masks**_.

Atla explained that these masks were used by Alchemists who create their own potions, and because it was dangerous, they needed an item to allow them to breath as they make potions without dying while doing so. So an Alchemist creates these masks for them.

As Naofumi looked at them closely, he saw that the masks themselves were made of some type of greyish bone, and like from the Venetian time, they had a long long beak. Now like some of the masks back then, they had a small hole on either side of the beak. These holes were where herbs and such were stored to protect them from the plague so that they could breathe among those who had the plague - that's what they believed in anyway. The eye holes had black tinted glass in them, Atla explained to protect the wearer from explosions and bright light that sometimes comes with the explosions.

Now for most masks back in the day, it was said that there were one of two ways the plague doctors wore them. The first was to have the masks with straps on so that they could be strapped around their head. The second way, the way these masks were made, they were attached to leather hoods, so that they would go over the person's head. As there was a fear that the masks could be knocked off if they go into trouble and someone might catch the plague, so they had their masks attached to the hood to prevent this.

Looking at these masks, Naofumi decided to check their stats, which were both the same:

_**Alchemist Mask:**_

_Stats: _

Physical Defence: +5

_Special Abilities:_

Poison Immunity

Potion Immunity

Foreign Chemical Immunity

The defence wasn't much, but then again for a mask, he didn't expect much anyway, although he did think they would be better seeing how they were made of bone. Either way, he had to admit the abilities it had were useful. Something he expected if Alchemist created their own potions and such, so not get themselves killed in doing so.

Then Naofumi looked at the masks that Kumiho and Raphtalia were holding, they too had _**Alchemist Masks**_, but unlike his though, theirs had smaller beaks than his. When he looked at the stats of the masks, he saw that they won't as good as his:

_**Alchemist Mask:**_

_Stats: _

Physical Defence: +2

_Special Abilities:_

Poison Resistance (medium)

Potion Resistance (medium)

Foreign Chemical Resistance (medium)

When asked about why the masks weren't as good as his, Atla informed him that this was some standard. The mask that he got was one that Master Alchemists used to wear, whilst the ones that his slaves had been ones that apprentice uses. It was Kumiho who told them that seeing how he was their Master, they should have lower ranking masks to show this.

When asked why they got two of them for him, it was Kumiho who explained it was Raphtalia's idea. From the little they knew about his shield, anything that he absorbed he had a chance of getting a new shield, the young girl thought that because of this, he might be able to get a new shield out of the mask. So they got him two masks, one to wear like normal and the other to be used as a shielding material, in the hopes that it could become a shield. It was the same for the other mask, known as a common mask.

This mask reminded Naofumi of an old film he once watched with his parents when he was a kid, the Lone Rider. It also reminded him of what his father called old Saturday Cartoon villains masks. The mask was a strip of leather that went across the eyes, it was tied held together by a string or something. Naofumi found it hard that anyone couldn't see behind that lame trick, then again, he was from a different age, where tech and such made them see things differently.

But seeing he was in a world of magic now, this mask could have some sort of magic to prevent people seeing the truth, then again, they wouldn't really need it. From Naofumi's experience with this world so far, common sense seems to be missing from people. So this mask might be one of the easiest ways to fool people. But still, he checked his new mask stats.

_**Common Mask:**_

_Stats: _

Physical Defence: +2

_Special Abilities:_

Facial Distortion

Voice Distortion

Whilst the defence was weak, the special abilities seemed useful if they worked how they should. So putting them on, he asked the others what they saw. They told him that they had a hard time getting a clear look of his face, not only that, but his voice was funny too, sure they could understand him, but his voice was weird and hard to match to the one they knew. Both Kumiho and Raphtalia admitted that if it wasn't for the Slave Crest, they couldn't even tell who he was.

When Naofumi noticed that they didn't get themselves masks like him, he asked about it. Kumiho explained that they didn't need one, as they could wear hoods to hide who they were, seeing how most people don't take too much notice of slaves. As to them, slaves weren't important enough to take notice of, not only that but a few Masters made their slaves wear hoods for one reason or another, so they were often overlooked. So it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to see a slave with a hood.

Naofumi didn't know what to say about this, but seeing how Kumiho knew more about this world than him, and Atla backing her up, he let it be. Seeing how they were eating lunch and nothing else to do, Naofumi decided to see if he could create any new shields from these masks. Sure enough, he did gain two new shields: _**Alchemist Mask Shield **_and _**Common Mask Shield.**_

_**Alchemist Mask Shield:**_

_Equip Bonus: _

Physical Defence: +5 (Unmastered)

Poison Resistance (small) (Unmastered)

Potion Resistance (small) (Unmastered)

Foreign Chemical Resistance (small) (Unmastered)

_Special Abilities:_

Poison Immunity

Potion Immunity

Foreign Chemical Immunity

_**Common Mask Shield:**_

_Equip Bonus: _

Physical Defence: +2 (Unmastered)

_Special Abilities:_

Facial Distortion

Voice Distortion

Naofumi was surprised that the shields were in fact masks themselves that appeared around his head when he summoned them. So as long as he didn't need the shield for something else, he could use one of them to hide the shield itself, so not needing to worry about people finding out he was the Shield Hero. So far he only had one shield that could hide this fact, the _**Treasury Shield**_. Sure he had book-like shields too, but Naofumi feared one day someone would try and take the book from him and discover the truth, so having more shields like the _**Treasury Shield**_ and the _**Mask Shields **_would be useful to hide who he was.

Whilst he had more ways to hide who he was, he had mixed feelings about the new shields. First off, the _**Alchemist Mask Shield**_, whilst it had the same abilities as the mask and had the same amount of defence in Equip Bonus, it did seem to give him some decent abilities. Whilst he was immune to poison, potions and foreign chemicals whilst wearing the mask, the Equip Bonus made it so that once he mastered the shield that he had a small resistance to the three when he wasn't wearing it, something he found useful.

On the other hand, the _**Common Mask Shield**_ was a bit of a letdown, it was just like the mask itself and only gave him two points in defence, he was hoping that he would gain a few points or some other skills to go with it. Then again, things were becoming a bit easier for him when it came to shields, so he suspected that this world was trying to remind him that he was the underdog here. At least he had a way to hide who he was and able to move around town a bit more freely now.

Although Atla did inform him that whilst wearing masks were common, people were also suspicious of those who wear one. As they believe that the person is trying to hide something, so making deals can be just as difficult if one of the shopkeepers were having a bad day or was even suspicious of the person behind the mask. So he should tread carefully with shopkeepers and try not to piss them off whilst making deals if they want a good price on something. So basically, it could be business as usual if the shopkeepers were in a bad mood or suspicious, otherwise, they could help him out a lot.

Now as he thought about the new shields, he knew that whilst what she did this morning was wrong, he believed that he had to reward Raphtalia for her idea. He had to think of a way to thank her somehow, he would look around town, later on, to see what he could find to thank here.

Either way, after getting the masks, they also give him a hook. Now he was somewhat surprised by the look of the hook, it was in the shape of a dragon's claw, a three-clawed dragon. It was something he saw on the internet back home. He wasn't sure if it was going to work for his Rope Shield, but all the shield said that it needed to continue to level the Rope Shield up was for it to have a hook, it didn't say what sort of hook to use. But when he absorbed the hook, it did its job and now the Rope Shield had a dragon hook at the end of it.

The Rope Shield now looked like it was some sort of Kusarigama weapon that the ninja of old used to have. It also gave him two points in attack because of the claw. Naofumi would have liked more, but he knew things would never be as easy as that for him in this world. As he thought about it, seeing how he is learning to fight with the rope, having this new claw attached to it, along with the other attack points he had, he could use it as another weapon when needed. Sure with twenty-nine points in attack, it wasn't much, but it was better than nothing and he was able to deal with low-level monsters without a problem. So he could have his slaves deal with the high-level monsters, whilst he dealt with the weaker ones.

Either way, they ate their lunch, planning what to do for the rest of the day. Atla was planning to visit Ulthane for a while, before returning for a few hours to teach Naofumi and Raphtalia more about reading the language of this world. As for Naofumi, he was planning to go into town for a bit to see if the _**Common Mask Shield **_works as it should and find Raphtalia a decent reward for coming up with the idea for the new shields. After they were done in town, they would level up a bit.

So once they finished their lunch, the group parted ways for a while.

_**o0OoO0o**_

_Kingdom of Melromarc, The Forest, 19th of January 740:_

_Time to the next Wave: D11 H22 M30._

It has been three days since young Raphtalia give him a blowjob and tried to have sex with him, and Naofumi and his slaves were heading towards Lute Village for the Slave Trader, Beloukas. They were riding a carriage, being pulled by a creature called Trycera. It reminded Naofumi of a mix of two dinosaurs back in his world called Triceratops and Styracosaurus, but this creature's body was made of stone and had what looked like pointed scales covering its body. Behind the carriage, was another carriage, this one was a cage carriage with four demi-human slaves. Two were female dog-like demi-humans whilst the other two were male bear-like demi-humans.

Either way, over the last few days the three of them levelled up a good deal, Naofumi was level nine and his two slaves were level seven. This made Naofumi happy as it would mean he wouldn't have to worry too much about Kumiho and Raphtalia getting hurt or dying on him anytime soon. He was happy that he could level up some of his abilities. But seeing how that his first Wave was about two weeks away, he had to think carefully where to place these skill points, he had to place them where it'll be beneficial in a fight as he had at least three shields he could use to level up: _**Slave Trainer Shield, Rope Shield **_and the _**Dire Werewolf Shield**_.

He could have levelled up _**Appraisal Shield **_too, but he had no idea what monsters he could be facing. He highly doubted that he would be facing the same type of monsters that he had been so far, so it would be a waste of time placing Skill Points in a skill that couldn't do him any good during the Waves. He would level it up afterwards, for now, he had to get ready for the Wave.

The _**Slave Trainer Shield**_ would allow his slaves to level up faster, where the _**Rope Shield**_ would allow him to tie up the monsters, whilst finally his trump card the _**Dire Werewolf Shield**_ would allow him to fight. Not only that but for all he knew he could gain new skills by levelling up these shields, making them stronger and more useful.

The _**Dire Werewolf Shield**_ though would be for the last resort, if they faced a powerful monster that Kumiho and Raphtalia couldn't handle on their own. He didn't want to use it just yet, as he didn't want the other heroes nor the king to know about it. He feared that they might do something against him someday, and on that day he would need a trump card against them. Which would be the _**Dire Werewolf Shield**_. But if they knew about it beforehand, they could come up with a plan to fight against it. So he would level it up, but he would only use it as a last resort. Not only that, he remembered about the demons from Ulthane and Atla's world, but he had also faced few of them before and Crusch had to save him. He didn't want that to happen again, so he wanted something to help in a fight with them should one happen.

Either way, when Naofumi got to level eight, he levelled up his _**Bonus Skill Points **_to level nine, which would allow him one hundred and three skill points per level. Once he did that, he had fifteen Skill Points left and five Attribute Points. Naofumi decided to level his _**Rope Shield**_ to another level, which left him with six Skill Points. So he left them for the next level.

When he got to level nine this morning, Naofumi decided to level up the _**Rope Shield**_ two more levels, believing that it should be enough to deal with the monsters in the next Wave. He didn't want to reveal to anyone what he could do just yet, so he would need another way to deal with the Waves.

He also levelled up his _**Dire Werewolf Shield**_ to level five, this allowed his transformation to have stronger claw and bite attacks. Sure he had to use sixty-five points and his attack power wasn't as high as he would like, but he didn't mind that much, as not only did his transformation become stronger, he also gained a new skill to go with it: _**Pack Leader**_. _**Pack Leader**_ was a passive skill, which boosts the stats of any wolves that Naofumi might have in his party whilst he was transformed.

Because of this, Naofumi went to Ulthane to see if he could create a few Wolf Summoning Cores, thankfully though the Maker had some for sale. Naofumi was expecting that the Core would cost him the little money that he had, but it didn't, in fact, Ulthane made a deal with him. He knew that Naofumi was going to the Lute Village, so in return of giving Naofumi four Wolf Summoning Cores, as payment, he wanted him to deliver some weapons to Lute Village who ordered them. Noafumi was more than happy to do this job.

As for the last few Skill Points, Naofumi decided that seeing how much mana the Summoning Core cost to use, he would use his last eleven points in _**Mana Recovery**_ and _**Mana Points**_. This way he can use more magic and recover mana faster, he suspected he would need to use magic sooner rather than later. This left him with one skill point, which he decided to leave for when he levelled up again.

As for his Attribute Points, seeing how he needs a lot of mana to use the Summoning Cores, he placed the five points into his Wisdom. Seeing how he can't really fight physically, Naofumi knew if he wanted to fight in the next Wave he had to divide his skills in an area that could help him out. Right now that would be magic, with his affinity for healing, support and alchemy, all of which needed Mana. So he would need to work on Wisdom so that he could use his magic fully and not worry about running out of it. Not only would he work on Mana, but the other stats within Wisdom like Spirit Points, Spirit Recovery and Magical Resistance. He would also have to level up his Spirit Points and Spirit Recovery seeing how his shield skills used Spirit Points, like his wolf transformation and using the rope from his _**Rope Shield**_.

To be honest, with levelling up, Naofumi was happy to leave the area, the EXP was going up and if things went the same way as the games that he played back home, sooner or later, most likely sooner, the EXP was going to go higher. Which means he would have to go to other places to level up. This wasn't the only reason why he was happy to leave the area, apart from needing to get more EXP, he had two other reasons. The first was, of course, he didn't want to be near the king or the town that broke him and made him mistrust everyone, the other was he needed to get new shields. As there were only so many monsters in the area and so far he got all he could get from this area.

Sure he got quite a few shields, mainly giving him more health, mana, stamina, stamina recovery, defence, magic than normal, along with allowing him to cook, make potions and dissect monsters better than he could before. One of the Mush monsters that his slaves gave him, made a shield that gave him an ability to appraise plants. There were two _**Egg Shields **_that gave him vision up and a few simple cooking recipes. All in all, apart from a few new skills, he gained 100 HP, 50 MP, 30 physical defence, 25 magical defence and 30 stamina.

As for loot, he mainly got meat, potions and such, a few rare items like accessories with stats added to them. He was thinking of selling these later on to gain extra money. Although, the Mush and Eggug Monsters gave him ingredients like eggs and vegetables. So with the meat from the other monsters, he didn't have to worry about being hungry at any time soon. It was something he was worried about before he gained the Loot Ability.

Although most shields were basics, he did gain three useful shields, _**PikyuPikyu Shield**_, which allowed his shields to recover from damage over time, the _**Pipe Shield**_ which gave him the _**Shield Prison**_ ability which would allow him to capture a monster/person in it or allow himself in it and protect him. However, the most useful shield was the _**Cooking Shield**_.

The _**Cooking Shield**_ was a round shield with a few food items on it, it came about the other day when they were eating dinner after a day of levelling up. His slaves asked him if he ever thought about putting some of his food into the shield to see if any shield could come about. The equip bonus wasn't much to talk about, a few simple cooking recipes and allowing him to cook better. No, what made it special, was the special effect that came with the shield called _**Food Status**_. This ability would allow any food that he cooked whilst wearing the shield, special stats for a short while. Say resistance to fire for an hour, or gain more HP or MP for a short while.

Naofumi thought this was the best special effect he gained so far, sure it wasn't an attack skill, but it was even better in his book. If he knew he was going into a tough battle beforehand, he could cook up a few items that they could use during the battle to make things easier depending on what was happening in a battle. A fight with a fire elemental monster no problem, eat some fire resistance food and they would be good. Need more mana than they had, just eat something with an MP boost their magic wouldn't be a problem.

Although there was one slight problem though, the _**Food Status**_ skill was levelled based. Meaning that the stats at the start wouldn't be the best, if he wanted better stats in his food, he would have to level up the _**Food Status**_ skill. But Naofumi knew that even if he had to put a few Skill Points into this ability, it would be worth it in the long if it gave them buffs in fights. As he thought about it, if he played around with the food, he might be able to add debuff so that he could use it against his enemies or those he feared would try and hurt him.

Other than levelling up and him gaining new shields and abilities, he and Kumiho were helping young Raphtalia get better, not only with her health but teaching her to fight. Naofumi took care of her health and made her more respectable by giving her a haircut.

Kumiho helped her with fighting, with Naofumi as a training dummy. He didn't like the idea of this, but Kumiho explained that it was best to teach her certain moves on him than on something that could kill her if she messed up somehow. He was an ideal person for her to train on until she gets stronger and able to use a blade, as he had a high defence and able to move making it so Raphtalia would have to adjust to fighting things that move.

Whilst her health and her lack of ability to fight can be dealt with, which they were, the main problem was her nightmares. She had nightmares of her father dying, of her time with her last master and other nightmares, she would scream during the night, screaming for her father. Beloukas was right, she was a lot of trouble, her screams attracted Balloon Monsters. Sure they weren't too much of a problem for him, but for Raphtalia and Kumiho, they could cause them some damage. Not only that but seeing how they were in the woods, her screams could attract some tougher monsters.

Whilst it might seem heartless, but he didn't care why she was having nightmares nor that she was traumatized by whatever happened to her father. What he cared about was that she could attract something that could be dangerous to them. Nothing he could do would wake her up when she was like this. So all he or Kumiho could do to stop this was to hold her close to her, hug and comfort her until the nightmares passed. During this time she would cry and at least once wet herself.

Naofumi was at a loss as to what to do, whilst he knew that he might be able to get another slave if he sent her back, something was holding him back. A part of him believing that Raphtalia was, in fact, the girl from his dreams. Not only that, but he had spent time and effort in training her and creating medicine to make her better. He didn't want to throw all that away unless he had to.

For now, all he could do was deal with the nightmares and hope that they wouldn't last for too long if they did, he might not have any other option but to send her back. As before long, they would be facing more dangerous monsters, and he couldn't risk her attracting monsters to them during the night.

Either way, with her training, other than using him to help her train, they have been also using the Balloon, Mush and Eggug Monsters to teach the young girl seeing how they were the less dangerous to deal with. But yesterday they went from those monsters, to Usapil, which was something a bit more dangerous. If things didn't turn out the way that they did, he was more than likely to send her back to the Slaver.

_**Flashback Begins!**_

.

It was afternoon, and Naofumi with his two slaves were levelling up, they had been dealing with Mush and Eggug Monsters that were in the area so that Raphtalia could get used to fighting. Naofumi had to admit that she was slowly getting there, although he had to admit though after the first morning together, she was acting somewhat strangely. She would try and get as close as possible to him trying to feel him up. It was strange, he did tell her not to do this but yet she did, he was on the verge in ordering her to stop this.

But there were three things stopping him, the first was that he didn't want to hurt her. Sure he didn't care if she lived or died, as long as she fought for him. But he didn't want a broken slave, something he feared might happen if he gave such an order. As he felt that even if he gave the order, she would still try to do so, and with the pain that she would feel, it might break and make it so that she would be unable to fight for him.

The second was something he didn't want to admit, but it was there in his mind, making it hard to stop her fully: he was enjoying it. Yeap, as much as he hated it and something he was fighting against doing something about it, there was a part of him that enjoyed what she was doing and wanted her to continue. The only reason he was fighting so hard not to react to this was that he was brought up that it was wrong, because he felt that he was taking advantage of her, so because of this, he was fighting against what he was feeling. Fighting not to allow her to continue where they left off a few days ago.

The third reason, the most important reason was that even if he wanted to, there was a huge part of him that was sickened at the thought. Not because of her age or anything like that, but thanks to what the Bitch Princess had done. Whilst there was a part of him that wanted sex, it would be strange if he didn't, but thanks to what the bitch had done to him, he would always feel ill at the thought of having sex with anyone. He didn't know if he would ever feel that he would ever want sex again, no matter if there was a tiny bit of him wanting it. The feeling that he had wouldn't let him pass it.

It didn't help with the fact that the day before he tested out his new skill from the _**Desire Shield**_, _**Sexual Inducement**_. He had no idea what the skill was going to do, so he was shocked when he used it for the first time. He and Kumiho were fighting a pack of wolves when he decided to try out the skill, what came next, Naofumi wasn't expecting. The male wolves began to fuck the female wolves, and if a male wolf was already fucking a female wolf one of the other male wolves would attack the male wolf to get to the female.

If that wasn't bad enough, Raphtalia and Kumiho were giving him strange looks… it was the same look that Raphtalia had, but more intense. It looked like if he didn't leave them to cool down, they might jump him. So he left them alone for a short while to get over the shield's effect on them, when he returned, they were red-faced at what happened. Naofumi just told them to let it go, as nobody expected that to happen. To him though, it was a good reminder to look at what the skills were before using them, something he was foolish not to do and something he would do for new skills from now on.

To be honest, though, he didn't think he would ever be using this ability again, as it could cause him more problems than needed. However, whilst he might not use the skill itself, he was thankful for its equip bonuses, his health would now regenerate a bit faster, not as fast as he would like but still, it would help in the long run. Not only that, but with the Stamina Up, he could do things much longer than before, which would be useful as he trains to get stronger.

As for Body Modification, that was the most useful of the skills coming from the Desire Shield, as it altered his body and not his cock as he feared. He had grown an inch or so and gained muscles on his body. The muscles weren't all that noticeable unless you knew the body beforehand. Thankfully, apart from Renka, no one knew what his body looked like before today. Thankfully, Renka wasn't going to see his body again to know the difference, even if she could remember what it looked like before.

Although he didn't know if this Body Modification was finished altering his body or not, if it hadn't, he would need a way to hide his form, as he didn't want people to see how powerful he really was. He hoped that by putting Skill Points into his _**Fake Out **_ability, he would gain some sort of disguise ability to hide what he really looked like.

Either way, back to Raphtalia's training, so far they had been going easy on her, only allowing her to fight Balloon, Mush and Eggug Monsters. Not only that, but they had her fight with her Imp Summon so that she could get used to fighting with the summoned monster. They would have taught her about her Magic Affinity which they learned was Light and Darkness, something her race was known to normally have, but they didn't have much time to deal with it seeing how they were training her to fight with a sword and her summoned monster.

When training was over for the day and they fought a few monsters to earn EXP, Naofumi allowed both of his slaves to rest and play as they liked. Raphtalia was having fun with her Imp and the ball that Naofumi got her as a reward for the Mask Shield idea.

Apart from playing ball with the imp, Raphtalia was learning a few pranks from it. Raphtalia found them funny and enjoyable, Naofumi had to smile at how the young girl was enjoying her time with the imp. To him, a happy slave was a better slave to have, they would be more than happy to do more for their master. As they wouldn't think about what their master asked of them too often.

It started while Raphtalia and her imp were playing with her new ball, the Imp wasn't really into playing with such a childish game. But seeing how it was a summoned monster, it did as he was ordered. But the day after Raphtalia gained the imp, the imp played small pranks on Naofumi and Kumiho, using itching powder along with glue and feathers. Not long after, Raphtalia had done the same pranks.

At first Raphtalia feared reprimand from her master, fearing that her Master would punish her, but Lord Naofumi had done nothing. She told him that she wanted to try these pranks at least once, as they seemed fun and she would take any punishment for it. To her shock though, he didn't punish her, instead, he told her not to pull the pranks on him or Kumiho too often, but instead on villagers or those who he told her needed a good prank. Which she happily agreed to.

Naofumi didn't do this out of the goodness of his heart, sure he wanted to keep her happy as he could if he was going to force her to fight for him. He just didn't want the pranks to happen to him too often.

Not only that, but he knew a bit about imps in the stories in his world, where they use pranks to steal and hurt others. So if the imps were anything like those in the stories back in his world, he would be happy for Raphtalia to learn from the imps. In the hopes she would pick up these traits, to use pranks and such to steal and hurt others over time and without realizing it, happy to do so. He wasn't sure if it would work, but it was a start and he wanted to see where this would go.

However though, seeing how they were leaving the area tomorrow to deliver the slaves, Naofumi knew he had to step up her training. To see if she could deal with the tougher monsters, as if she couldn't no matter how Naofumi felt about her, he had to send her back to the Slaver and get a slave that could. He needed to get stronger and to do that he needed slaves that could fight, if they couldn't he had no time for them.

So as they were going deeper into the forest, Naofumi was looking for a monster for Raphtalia to fight. Something she could prove she could deal with tougher monsters.

He had It wasn't long after they entered the woods that they faced their first proper monster, a pill rabbit monster called Usapil. The critter jumped at Raphtalia, considering she was closest to it, and tried to bite her. Naofumi quickly pushed her out of the way, where the bloody rabbit bit into his arm. He was thankful that the shield prevented any damage or pain.

Now Kumiho was going to kill the monster for her Master, but one look from him stopped her. Before she could ask why, he said to the young girl, "Now Raphtalia, I want you to kill this monster, to show me that you got what is needed to fight, to deal with any monster that we might face."

"Ahh… I…" Raphtalia startered, afraid of killing the small creature

"What is it?" Naofumi asked the young girl, wondering what is wrong with her.

"It's alive… and it… it'll bleed!" Raphtalia tried to tell her Master what was wrong, why she couldn't kill this monster, but she was too afraid to say much.

Naofumi tried to figure out what she wanted to say. "Just deal with it. We're going to have to fight lots of living things."

"But… but… I'm afraid of blood." Raphtalia blurted out.

The Usapil kept biting me, over and over. Whilst he couldn't feel any pain, he could feel the pressure of its teeth, it was getting annoying.

"Just do it!" snapped Naofumi with everything that has happened in the last few weeks, he was on edge with the recent events. So right now he couldn't deal with such things such as someone's fear of blood. Seeing how she was shaking in fear, and had tears in her eyes, and the Slave Crest was now beginning to hurt her because she wasn't following his wishes, Naofumi couldn't help but to feel a _bit _sorry for her. "Listen Raphtalia, if you can't kill this or any other monster that bleeds, I can't continue taking care of you. I'll be forced to send you back and find someone who can do what is needed. It would be the same if Kumiho can't do what I need, I need whomever is with me to fight, otherwise I'll need to find someone who can." He said darkly. It was harsh, but it was the truth nonetheless, it was something that the young girl needed to hear.

"You should know that to me both of you are tools for me to use to fight in the Waves of Catastrophe." Naofumi explained to the young girl, "I'm the Shield Hero, as such I don't have any good attack power, so I need you to do the fighting where I cannot. So if you can't defeat a monster like this, I can't protect you, so I'll have to send you back and get a slave that'll be able to do what you seem unwilling to do. Kill monsters. As much as I hate it, it's my job to fight against the Waves of Catastrophe, but because of my limitations when it comes to fighting, I need others to do this."

Sure, the three of them spent a short time together and grew a little attached. But Naofumi still needed her and Kumiho to fight for him. If neither she or Kumiho were able to fight, he would have to return them and get a new slave, one that could fight.

Sure, in his dreams Raphtalia would grow and become strong, someone he could trust fully. But as Atla said, people from his dreams could be different to those in this world, and his actions could affect what happens. Because he couldn't remember how he acted in his dreams, this Raphtalia might hate him for the way he is acting. The problem is that this is the only way for him to survive in this world, being cold and if needed ruthless.

As he thought about it, Naofumi could pinpoint where he fully became cold and distant towards people, it was when Renka turned on him. Sure, Bitch was bad enough, but Naofumi believed that over time he might be able to get close to people again. But when Renka believed the bitch and in doing so, in his mind, betrayed him, he fully lost the ability to believe in and trust people.

He believed that it was better to be cold and distrustful of others, that way he couldn't be betrayed again, that he couldn't be hurt by another person. That he would do whatever he had to, to survive what is coming, so that at the end of the day he would live no matter what happens afterwards. Even if it meant that he would become what people feared most, a demon, he would do so so that he wouldn't die. He didn't care who he crossed to survive.

Naofumi watched as Raphtalia was in pain, trembling, scared and afraid of going back to the Slave Trader. He knew it was cruel to force her to make a choice, to have her to pick to kill or to be sent back to that hellhole. But yet this was not the time for such thinking, he needed slaves who could fight and follow his orders if he wanted to live. He could repay her and Kumiho for their effort later, for now he needed her to act.

"I understand…" Raphtalia told her Master as she realized that her Master was right, that he did need those who could fight for him and anyone who couldn't was no use to him and would be thrown away to get someone who could help him. Fearing she would be sent back to the Slave Trader, and wanting to help her Master, she took a few deep breaths through the pain she was feeling, she rushed to meet him head on, the short sword poised to stab.

It hit the Usapil dead on, making blood spill and gush, some of the splash hitting her. She looked at him with a mix of fear and surprise, but now there was something in there he couldn't recognize. Admiration, hope, longing? He didn't know and would not pretend to. "Please, I will be useful to my lord, I'll attack whoever/whatever you desire, do whatever you want, but please, don't throw me away."

"As long as you and Kumiho do your jobs and don't give me reason to throw you away, I'll keep you both by my side." Saying it left a bitter taste in his mouth. Whilst he knew that being cold and distrustful would serve him and allow him to serve in this world, there was still humanity in him to hate what he had to do to get what he wanted. He tried to relieve the guilt in his mind with the fact that what he was offering her was a thousand times better than what she would have if he returned her to the Slave Dealer.

_**Flashback Ends!**_

They got the Trycera and the carriage that morning, when they picked up the four slaves that he was meant to be delivering to the Mayor of the village that they were going to. Right now the four slaves were in the back of the carriage with Kumiho and Raphtalia, they were looking worried and uneasy. They couldn't believe that the Shield Hero was helping the Slave Trader, he was meant to be a hero not someone who would sell them off. But when asked he just told them that he had no other options, as he needed money and this was the only job he could get. They were a means to an end, a way for him to get stronger. If there was anyone to blame it was this kingdom, as if it wasn't for their actions he wouldn't be doing this.

All they could do was sit there and look displeased at how this kingdom would do such a thing to their god that he would be forced to do this. Either way, it wasn't like they could do much about their predicament, seeing the Slave Crest prevented them from running or hurting the Shield Hero if they wanted to escape.

As for Kumiho and Raphtalia, Kumiho was reading a book as well keeping an eye on the other slaves just in case they did something, whilst Raphtalia was asleep hugging her Imp Summons and the ball that he got her as a reward for her idea for the Mask Shield. She was sleeping as the carriage ride was making her ill. It would seem that even in this world, travel sickness was a thing in this world. It would seem that when he had the time, he would have to find a way to create some anti-travel sickness pills or potions.

Whilst he didn't mind Raphtalia sleeping right now, seeing how Kumiho was awake and it was a few hours to the village they were going to, he couldn't have the young raccoon girl sleeping all the time. As he knew that if they got into a fight, she wouldn't be fully ready to fight if she suddenly awoke from her sleep. That would put the three of them in danger, so he would need a way to deal with this soon.

Now seeing how they had about an hour or so before they got to Lute Village, Naofumi wondered if Kumiho knew why Raphtalia was acting as if she was going to jump him. Kumiho was not only from this world, but she was older and so might be able to tell him about this.

"Kumiho, can you come up here for a bit, I have something I want to ask you." Naofumi called out to his vixen slave.

"Coming Master…" Kumiho called out, as she put her black book away and went to sit next to her Master in the front of the carriage. "What can I do to help you Master?"

"It's about Raphtalia," explained Naofumi, "I was wondering if you knew why she looks like she, she wants to jump me and fuck me?" This Naofumi was red faced about this, he never thought he was going to ask anyone why a ten year old would jump him.

"How much do you know about slaveray in this world Master?" asked the Kitsune demi-human."

"To be honest, other than it exists and it's legal in this world, I know nothing." admitted Naofumi.

"Well in that case let me inform you about it, in the hope it'll helps you to understand about slaveay."

However, before she could begin to explain about the slaveray of this world, a hail of arrows landed around their carriage. Seeing this Naofumi could only think of one thing, _'Please, don't it be him, please.'_

There was only one person Naofumi could think of that could fire so many arrows at him, in a perfect circle around his carriage: Itsuki Kawasumi. He, along with the other damn heroes, was the last person that the Shield Hero wanted to meet right now, as they would more than likely try and stop him from doing his job. He knew that whilst their attacks might not do much to him right now, they would still be a pain in a neck to deal with.

He woke Raphtalia up, telling her that they might have a problem and he needed her awake and ready to follow his orders, he jumped out of the carriage to see who attacked him. As he looked around, he saw the very person that he feared it might be, the Bow Hero and his group."

_**To be Continued! **_

_**Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END:**_ Here ends another chapter of Rising of the Shield Demon, I would like to thank you for reading this chapter and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I would like to apologise for the late update but two problems stopped me from updating sooner, the first is writer's block, if you're a writer you can understand where I'm coming from. The other problem was that my plug broke and of the state of the world right now, it took about a month to get the laptop back and since then I had problems getting back to writing.

So you know, this was basically a filler chapter, something to happen before things can move along. I would like to ask do you think I'm being harsh towards Raphtalia? As my friend believes that I am, but I think I'm not, so I would like to hear your thoughts about this.

I would like your help with a few problems I have, first is how should I deal with the duel between Naofumi and Motoyasu? Whilst I could go around this and not make it happen, however, I need this for him to decide to become a demon, as this is Naofumi's breaking point. The problem is that Naofumi knows that the king doesn't have much power and knows that slaveary is legal, so I want a way for the king to force the Shield Hero to duel the Spear Hero. This is an important point, as I'll be covering this in a few chapters time.

Next I need your help with the Temple and the Gemini Tomb, for the temples, I was wondering what sort of challenges they should have? Nothing too dangerous, but something to test them before gaining a skill like healing and such. Next for the Gemini Tomb, what sort of monsters should I do for the tomb?

I won't spoil the plot to the story, but I'm planning to transform Bitch and Trash into demi-humans, I was thinking for Bitch a dog demi-human, because of her name. :P Whilst for Trash a white tiger demi-human to remind him of his past. I'm doing this as seeing how they hate demi-humans, this would be an added punishment for the two with the changing of their names.

Now I'm still after ideas for original creations for people (humans/demi-humans/demons/makers and the like,) along with new shields - still looking for another sex shield. So if you have any ideas, I would like to hear them.

Please use the following template to create new shields and OCs.

_Name of Shield:_

_Stats: _Stats that the shield has, not counting Equipment Bonus.

_Requirements:_ What is needed for the shield to be created.

_Equipment Bonus: _What stats and abilities the shield has

_Special Effect(s):_ Any special effects that that shield alone might have.

_Upgrading:_ If the shield is able to be upgraded, is it by skill points or something else.

Name:

Age:

Birthday:

Race:

Birthplace:

Gender:

Height:

Skin Colour:

Eye Colour:

Hair Colour:

Hair Style:

Body Type:

Scars:

Piercing:

If you want ideas for races, here's some ideas: Darksiders World, demi-human world, and finally Final Fantasy World, I was planning to have a fourth one, but as of yet I haven't been able to come up with an idea for that world. Now if there's a character from an anime/cartoon you would like to see as a slave or as a character you would like to see in the story, please let me know and I'll think about adding them if I can.


	16. Chapter 15

_**Author's Note:**_ Sorry for the delay, but I had writer's block and so had to do something else to wait for it to break. Which I wrote Back to the Future - A What if Story. But because I used parts of VoiceOfPikachu's work and they found out, they asked me to remove it which I did. But when I talked to him and showed him the changes that I made, he still didn't like it as to him it was too similar to his so once again I'm editing the story again. But seeing how the scene where Marty and Lorraine first meet, and the scene that I used, there aren't many ways to write that scene and not make it similar to his, so it's difficult to rewrite it and taking a long time to do so. So that has been taking my time too.

But seeing how difficult it is to rewrite these small parts, I decided to come back to this story and work on it as I think about how I can change the parts needed in the story.

Another thing, I have started a side-story to explain things that would break the flow of the main story, like introducing some of the side-characters I'm planning to use. I'm also planning to write about Melty and why she came back to the kingdom but with more detail. I'm also planning to write a few chapters about Glass's world, some world-building to show what kind of world Glass and the others come from.

_**Chapter Fifteen…**_

_**Things about Slavery!**_

"Kumiho, Raphtalia, I want you two to stay in the carriage with the slaves," ordered Naofumi, "and should I give you the order, I want you to rush to Lute Village and stay there until I come for you."

"But Master, what about you?" Raphtalia asked her Master, "As your slaves, didn't you buy us to protect and fight for you?"

"I agree with Raphtalia, didn't you get us to fight for you?" asked Kumiho, "So shouldn't we be with you when you face the Bow Hero and his group?"

"Normally yes," admitted Naofumi, "but we have to deliver these slaves safely. So seeing how we need the coins, they come first. So seeing as we have no idea what this lot wants, it's better you stay here ready to leave when I say so."

"What about you?" asked Kumiho, she understood her Master's reasoning here, the job came first, but still, had her Master had some sort of plan to escape? "How can you deal with them without us?"

"It's only been a week since we got here, so I don't think he has enough attack power to get past my defences yet." Naofumi told them thoughtfully, "And even if they have, I do have a few ways to get out of a fight if I have to. I even have my _**Imp Shield**_ to cast Fireballs if I have to."

But before anything else could be said, Itsuki called out when he saw Naofumi, "Iwatani, what the hell do you think you're doing with those slaves?"

"My job," said Naofumi, seeing no point in denying anything, as he got off the carriage, "I'm protecting them until I deliver them to their new Master. What about you, why the hell did you attack us for?"

"I was hired to free some slaves from a Slave Trader, who was taking them to their Master." the Bow Hero explained, "I never thought that the Slave Trader would be you. I knew that you had slaves, but because they belonged to someone else, I couldn't say much. But to find out that you have become a Slave Trader, I couldn't believe that you could sink so low."

"Oh, back up there Itsuki, you seem to be missing a few things here." the Shield Hero told the other hero, "First off, I'm not a Slave Trader, I'm only working for one as a bodyguard and a delivery man to make sure they got to their Master without trouble. Next, whilst I might not like the idea of the job, I need the coins and seeing how the king has made it his mission to make my life hell, I'm limited to what jobs I can do. So I'll take any job wherever I can get them, be it lawful or not, as long as I can get the coins to get better armour and such. Lastly, you do know that slavery is legal in this world, so what I'm doing isn't wrong."

"First, the king had every right to make your life hell after what you did to his daughter." Itsuki told the Shield Hero with a sneer.

"Oh please, don't tell me that you still believe that crap," Naofumi defended himself once again, "why the hell would I do something as bad as that when I have something with Renka? Why the fuck would I ruin my chance with her by raping the Frist Princess? I would be nuts to do so."

"Seeing how you can work for a Slave Trader, who knows what sick reason why you would do a thing." Itsuki said darkly, "Slavery is wrong and as heroes, it is our job to change the things that are done in this world."

"Than you are a fool," Naofumi told the young boy, deciding it was a waste of time trying to change his mind about what happened with the bitch princess "slavery has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, even when past heroes were in this world, but yet they were unable to stop it or did nothing to change it, seeing how it's still around."

"Then it's our place to try and do what they couldn't, we shouldn't stop doing what is right just because those before us couldn't stop it." Itsuki told the Shield Hero with belief in justice in him.

"But who are we to say what is right and what is not?" Naofumi asked Itsuki, "We're outsiders to this world, we have no right to force our beliefs onto others because we don't agree with what is happening in this world."

"It's everyone's right who believes that it's unjust to enslave someone else." Itsuki told him with conviction, then he waved his to his companions and said, "My companions also believe that slavery is wrong and they want to stop it too."

"Then let them do it themselves, our job is to deal with the Waves of Calamity." Naofumi told the young teen, "We have to work on levelling up and getting stronger, not getting involved with the politics of this world. We don't have the time to do that. If you want to stay in this world and fight to stop slavery after we stop the Waves, then you can do whatever you want. But only then, we need to deal with what is important, and right now that's the Waves."

Naofumi wanted to make the Bow Hero see sense in this, he knew deep down if the Bow Hero went around and played with this world's politics, then the young teen wouldn't be able to become strong enough to fight the Waves over time. If that happens, well, he didn't give the fuck about the other heroes, but it would mean that they would fail and would be killed in whatever happens when the world's loss to the Waves of Calamity.

"As of now, you really need to prioritise on becoming stronger, learning new skills and such than help going about and dealing with other problems." Naofumi told the teen, trying to make him see sense. Whilst he might not like the other heroes, he knew that unless he can get stronger than the three of them together, he would need their help in the future.

"I'm able to do both," Itsuki told the Shield Hero, "as a hero, it's my belief that we should bring justice to this world, something that you seem to be willing to forsake."

"I see, so you won't let me do my job and allow me to bring these slaves to their new Master?" Naofumi asked the young teen, knowing the answer already but hoping to get out of showing some of his skills.

"You are right, in the name of justice, I can't let you send these people to become slaves." The Bow Hero told him with conviction as he raised his bow, ready to attack.

"I see." Naofumi said with a sigh as he turned his shield into the _**Rope Shield**_, seeing how he had no other option than to have the other to escape, so he called out, "Kumiho, Raphtalia, get out of here, I'll find you when I'm done here."

"Okay my lord." Kumiho called back as she followed her Master's orders and left the area with the slaves.

Here Itsuki tried to use his bow to attack the carriage so he could stop it, but before he could fire an arrow, Naofumi used his _**Rope Shield**_ to pull the bow away from the carriage. The attacks missed and the arrows fired from the bow were sent elsewhere. Itsuki's companions tried to go after the carriage, but Naofumi used the _**Rope Shield**_ to pull them away.

It took Itsuki and his companions to realize what just happened, that the Shield Hero, a hero that shouldn't be able to fight back, had just thought back with nothing but a rope. "What did you just do?" asked one male member of Itsuki's group. "You shouldn't be able to attack anyone."

"What are you talking about, I can fight and cause you pain. But unless I can find a way to raise my physical attack, I wouldn't be able to take any Hit Points from you." Naofumi informed the fool, then he changed the shield into his _**Imp Shield**_. "Listen, I don't want to fight with you guys, but if you force me to, I will."

"What can you do?" Itsuki asked with a sneer, "All you can do is defend and do tricks to hold us up. There's nothing you can do to hurt us, all we have to do is keep you busy as one of us gets the slaves back. So, Goro, get the slaves and take them to our client, whilst we keep Naofumi busy so he can't bother you. We'll meet up with you later."

Wanting to give his slaves more time to get to the Village of Lute, he knew that he had to delay them for a bit longer. This meant he had to show them a few skills that he had that allowed him to fight and to show them that he wasn't a pushover nor weak as they thought he was. So he fired a fireball at Goro who was making a getaway to find the slaves. The spell hit, where it caught the man on fire and started to burn.

"Ah, it burns, it burns." Goro screamed out in pain as he rolled on the floor, shocking the group, as they saw that he was injured and his Hit Points were slowly draining away. Someone who had some healing skills, the group's healer Naofumi expected, began to heal and deal with the burns that the man had.

"Iwatani you asshole, what did you do to him?" Itsuki asked angrily as he strung his bow ready to fire at Naofumi.

"What I had to stop him and you from interfering with my job," Naofumi explained with a sigh, "something I wouldn't have been forced to do if you didn't try and interfere with my job."

"Everyone, we have to deal with Iwatani quickly if we want to free those slaves before they get to their new owners." Itsuki told his companions as they began to surround Naofumi, ready to fight, "I don't know how you were able to hurt Goro, what cheats that you used to do so, but we'll make you pay and free those slaves."

With that the Bow Hero and companions tried to attack the Shield Hero, trying to put him out of action for a short while and make him pay for what he did to Goro. But Naofumi was ready for this, he pulled out a few Wolf Cores that he got before leaving town from the bag he had and summoned three wolves to defend him.

Whilst this shocked the group that the Shield Hero had them, it wasn't much of a shock that he could fight back in some way. Seeing how Itsuki was a ranged fighter, he jumped back to use his bow on the wolves, whilst his companions dealt with the Shield Hero. The problem here was that Naofumi used his martial arts to defend against them, using the moves he knew to throw them and dodge. Unlike the monsters of this world, Naofumi knew how to deal with humans thanks to his training back in his world, so it wasn't as hard to deal with like facing monsters.

Whilst Naofumi could hurt them a bit, he held back on attacking them, as he wanted to give Kumiho and Raphtalia time to get to Lute Village. As for the wolves, whilst they weren't all that powerful they were defeated with somewhat ease, but they did their job by keeping the Bow Hero busy for a bit. So in this case, Naofumi had to change the way he fought, now he used his _**Rope **_and _**Imp Shield**_ to keep the group busy now that Itsuki joined the fight.

Naofumi used the _**Imp Shield**_ to fire fireballs at the Bow Hero so that he couldn't easily fire arrows at him, and when he had the chance he used the _**Rope Shield**_ to pull and throw Itsuki's companions. In fact, he used them to keep Itsuki from attacking him with his arrows when he couldn't use his _**Imp Shield**_. Naofumi didn't like using dirty tricks like this, but seeing how he couldn't deal much damage and limited to how much mana and SP he could use, he had to use whatever tricks he could to deal with them.

After about ten minutes of fighting, Naofumi believed that he stalled them long enough for Kumiho and Raphtalia to escape with the other slaves, so he should make his escape too. So it was time to use one of the things that he made with Atla, a smoke bomb. Sure it wasn't much, but Atla believed that for his first thing that he made as an alchemist, other than potions, he should make something to help him in fights.

Sure he could have come up with bombs and such, but something within him thought that it wasn't something he should make first. It should be something that would help him and his slaves escape in fights should things get too much, which is why he came up with smoke bombs. So taking one of the few that he was able to make work, he threw a small clear glass orb onto the ground, where it broke and let out a huge amount of smoke. It was thick enough that everyone, even him a bit, began to cough. This allowed him to escape through.

Once the smoke cleared and Naofumi was long gone, Itsuki and his companions were left shocked. They had no idea that Naofumi could fight like that, that he could hold them off even though he didn't have any attack points as they did. They didn't think that he would have summoning cores and be able to summon those wolves, sure they were weak, but still that was something that they weren't expecting either. They knew that the next time that they faced him, they should be careful not to underestimate him.

As for Itsuki, he couldn't believe it, the Shield Hero from his game wasn't able to do the things that Naofumi just did. All the Shielder could do in Dimension Wave was heal, use support magic along with buff and debuff magic. The Shielders weren't able to do much at all, which is why no one was bothered to use them, seeing how they couldn't fight back and first to fall to the higher players. To use that fireball ability and be able to fight with the rope and martial arts, the Shield Hero had to have found a way to cheat.

This made Itsuki angry, not only was Naofumi working with an evildoer and willing to let those who were unjust go, but he was a cheater too. This was something he couldn't let stand, he didn't want to believe that as a Cardinal Hero, Naofumi was the Demon of the Shield as many people said he was. But after what happened with Renka and the First Princess, and now this, Itsuki had to believe that there was some truth in what the people were saying about the Shield Hero.

Somehow, at some point in the past, the Legendary Shield had gotten cursed somehow and now whoever became the next Shield Hero would gain this curse and become evil, becoming the Demon of the Shield. It was the only reasonable reason why things turned out like this, for Naofumi to gain abilities that a Shielder shouldn't have. Now as someone who thought himself as a Hero of Justice, Itsuki knew that apart from getting stronger for the Waves and to bring those who break the law to justice, Itsuki now had to get stronger to deal with Naofumi.

Itsuki couldn't let Naofumi run about and do what he wanted. The Shield Hero couldn't go around doing evil, like it or not, the Shield was a hero and should act like one, even if they act like a criminal in their world. He believed that as the Hero of Justice, it was his job to make Naofumi act like the hero he was summoned to be, even if he had to use force to do so. The only way to do this was to get stronger, which meant doing quests for the guilds, defeating monsters and gaining new weapons.

The next time that Itsuki saw Naofumi, he hoped that the next time that he met Naofumi, he could bring him back to his senses or at the very least make him help with the Waves as he should. With that, he and his companions started to head out to return to the guild and informed them that they failed the quest that they were given.

_**o0OoO0o**_

It was a few hours since Naofumi made his getaway from Itsuki and his companions, he found that after escaping, he had only lost a few hit points. It would seem that they were slightly stronger than expected, so he would have to be careful and get stronger. He didn't want to accidentally die by one of those fools that was summoned with him.

Either way, he was now getting close to Lute Village, and it was night time thanks to him being forced to walk here. He knew it couldn't be helped, but he didn't like it anyhow. Upon entering the town, he was met up with Kumiho and Raphtalia who looked relieved at seeing him.

"M, Master, you finally came." Raphtalia said as tears came down her cheek, as she hugged her Master. She was worried that he might have died without her and Kumiho, seeing how there were powerful monsters out there. Sure he was the Shield Hero, but it didn't stop her worrying. If he wasn't caught, she feared that he was taken away and placed in a cell or something, keeping him from them. Both of these ideas frightened her, seeing that if that happened, she might be forced back to the Slave Trader where she might be sold to another master, one that wouldn't look after her like Master Naofumi had been.

"I too am glad that you have arrived, Master. If you hadn't arrived soon, we were planning to search for you." Kumiho admitted worriedly. She too was worried if her new Master was killed or caught. Because she was a slave now in a human supremacy kingdom she feared what might happen to her. If she couldn't get back to her own kingdom and report what happened, she might be sold off to another Master and treated badly. As for her Master, he might have been treated worse than any demi-human seeing how much this kingdom hated the Shield Hero.

Naofumi was a bit touched that they cared about what happened to him, seeing how up 'til now no one seemed to care for him. Although, he believed that Raphtalia was more honest at being sincere than Kumiho. Kumiho was sent here from another kingdom to be his slave, to make sure that he was kept safe. So he wasn't too sure how much of her sincereness was real or not. All he knew was that this was part of a bigger plan, as soon as she got close enough, she might have a way to betray him or single someone to do so.

As for Raphtalia, whilst she had reasons to act in such a way, so as not to be sent back to the Slave Trader, from the little he knew of her story, she was unable to pretend even if she wanted to. She feared what would happen if he learned if he did learn that she lied, so Naofumi believed that her being sincere was 100% real.

"I'm fine you two," Naofumi finally reassured them, as he patted Raphtalia's head, "I was able to get away from them easily enough once I believed that you two were far enough away. They weren't strong enough to hurt me that much, my defences are too high for that."

"That's good to hear Master," said Raphtalia, as she pulled out of the hug, "can I ask what you have planned next for us?"

As Naotfumi thought about it, seeing how late it was, what he had been through that day, along with being busy for the last few days, it would be nice to sleep in a bed. Sure camping was fun and all, to make things easier, but it would be nice to sleep in a warm bed every now and then. So with a smile, he said, "I think we'll spend the night at the inn and relax for the night, we'll sort out what to do next in the morning."

Both of the girls agreed with this and nodded happily as the three of them went looking for an inn to stay in for the night. As they were looking for one, Naofumi thought about the slaves, and so he asked, "Did you deliver the slaves?"

"We did, but there was a slight problem." The Kitsune demi-human explained, "The new owner wouldn't pay until he meets you, as we couldn't swap the Slave Crest ownership, only you could do that. So until you hand the ownership over, he won't pay."

"Understandable." Naofumi admitted to Kumiho, he too wouldn't pay for the slaves until he knew he owned them fully in case the seller tried to take the slaves from him after getting paid. "So where are they now?"

"They are in the stables," Kumiho informed her master, "we rented a space for them to sleep in and give them some food for the night. We informed them that we would be back either tonight or in the morning."

"Will they be safe in the stable until morning? No chance of them running away or someone taking them?" Naofumi asked a bit worried that they would either run away, someone tries to free them, hurt them or take them without paying for them.

"You don't have to worry about them, Master," Kumiho reassured him, "the Slave Crest prevents them from running and they'll defend themselves should someone tries to take them. You should also have a notification should something happen to them."

Naofumi was glad to hear that, seeing how if they were taken before he could finish his job, not only would he lose money that he needed, but lose free EXP that he would gain from finishing this 'Quest.' But still, he knows that until morning, he would have to keep an eye on these slaves, just in case Itsuki and his companions come to this village and try and free them or the mayor decides not to pay him and take the slaves from them. He knew that he wouldn't be getting much sleep that night, just in case something happens to them and he needed to act quickly to get to them.

"That's good to know." said Naofumi, as they continued walking. It wasn't long for them to find the inn, which was just down the street of the stables. In fact, he could view the stables with ease, so he could quickly run down to them should he need to.

The problem was that it would seem that news of what he meant to have done had already reached this village, as they were treating him a bit hostile. They didn't like that he was a rapist nor a woman beater, so they wouldn't allow him to stay at the inn. After a few harsh words about the cost of how much they wanted for him to stay at the inn, ten silver coins, ten times they would normally make someone to pay and Naofumi trying to defend himself saying that he didn't do anything and failing to make them see sense, they had to stay in the stables for the night. It wasn't something that they would have liked to happen, but there wasn't much to do about it.

_**o0OoO0o**_

It was a few hours later since Naofumi and his slaves set up in the stable for the night. Seeing how there wasn't much to do that night, other than Naofumi, it was decided that the slaves would have an early night. As for Naofumi, as planned because of his mistrust of the village, along with how they treated him earlier, he stayed up for the night. To make sure that he could see what was happening, Naofumi pulled a wooden barrel outside and sat on it. It wasn't that comfortable, but it would do for his needs for the night.

As he sat there, Naofumi's heart was becoming a bit darker with how this village was treating him, just because of a few words from the king, they seemed to hate him too. They don't seem to even want to hear his side of things. It would seem that because of Bitch's injuries, people were more intent to believe lies than to hear other peoples side of things.

Part of him had to wonder why he was going along with Atla's way and try to show people that he wasn't the demon that they thought he was. It would seem that people have already decided he was a demon and nothing he did would change that. But at the same time though, he didn't want to make things harder than he had to, not until he knew he had the strength and resources to do something.

As he thought back to his talks with Atla and Ulthane, he knew that he had to set up a base where he could plan and set things up to fight against the Waves. This was something he would have to talk to Kumiho and Raphtalia about soon, seeing how they knew this kingdom and the kingdoms around this one better than him. So they could advise him where he could set up a base, even if it is for a short while. At first, he had hoped he could set up a temporary base here seeing how the next Wave was so close, but with how they were treating him, he didn't think it would be possible so he needed to look elsewhere.

But with only about ten days until the next Wave, he believed that he would be forced to stay in this village until after the Wave. He needed to get stronger and unless Kumiho and Raphtalia knew somewhere to set up base, he would be forced to make this village as his camp unless he can find somewhere else to do so.

Now his thoughts were interrupted when someone touched his shoulders and someone said, "Master, are you unable to sleep?"

Looking around, he saw that it was Kumiho standing there, "I can if I wanted to, but until I deliver the slaves to the Mayor, I feel uneasy to sleep right now." explained Naofumi, "With Itsuki out there wanting to prevent slaves going to their new owners, it would be foolish to sleep until I handed over the slaves to the Mayor, just in case Itsuki finds us and tries to free these slaves. Not only that but with how these villagers seem to treat me, I wouldn't put it past them to try and take these slaves whilst we're sleeping and so preventing me from getting paid. So it's too risky to sleep right now."

Kumiho sighed at this, she could understand her Master's worries. It would seem that this kingdom was out to get him, to make his life as hellish as possible, preventing him from getting stronger. She just wished that he was summoned in Siltvelt, that way she wouldn't be a slave for her Master, not that she minded, but more importantly, her Master wouldn't be treated as bad as he had been. In fact, he would be treated like a god as he should be, he wouldn't have to worry about anything. He would have money, women and anything else he wanted, with no questions asked.

"Although I don't mind staying up, I have a few things on my mind." admitted Naofumi, "Mainly about where to set up my base."

"Why not come to Siltvelt?" Kumiho asked her Master, "You would want for nothing and you would be treated so much better than you have been here, they know that you wouldn't do such things."

"Don't get me wrong that thought occurred to me," Naofumi informed her, "but for now I have to stay in Melromarc."

"Why?" Kumiho asked in confusion, "Why stay in a country that hates you so much?"

"A few simple reasons," the Shield Hero told his slave, "the main one is that there's a shield that I need to get and the only place that I can get it, as far as I know, is during a Wave in Melromarc."

"How do you know this Master?" asked Kumiho.

Naofumi realized that Kumiho nor Raphtalia knew about what he could fully do, so seeing how she needed to understand why he wanted to stay in this damn kingdom he said, "Do you know what Clairvoyance is?"

"I believe that's the skill where people can see into the future in some form," Kumiho said thoughtfully, "it is said that there are a few sages in Siltvelt that has this ability."

"Well, I have this ability too," Naofumi informed Kumiho, shocking her, "but mine I have in the form of dreams. The problem is that unless I can put what I see into words or pictures when I get up, I would forget about them. But I do have feelings about them from time to time, mainly if they are important or not."

Kumiho couldn't believe that her Master had such an ability, it meant to be rare. As she said, there were a few of them in Siltvelt, but the few were only around five or so known true ones. The others were fakes, trying to cash in the ability, but it can be hard to tell, seeing it is hard to tell most of the time. But for the Shield Hero to have it, there would be many who would fall head over heels to have their daughters have a child with him in the hopes for the child to gain the ability.

"Now whilst I don't remember fully about this new shield that I meant to be getting, I feel that it's important that we stay in Melromarc until we get it." explained Naofumi, "As I feel that this shield will be very helpful against the upcoming Waves. So until we get it, we have to stay here, but once we do, we'll be out of here before you can say Shield Demon."

Whilst she would like to return to Siltvelt as her father and the others wanted, she knew better than to force this. As the sages that had Clairvoyance in Siltvelt were able to prevent things or able to warn people about dangers that couldn't be stopped. So if her Master says it is important that they stay until they get the shield, then she wasn't going to force the issue.

"I understand Master, I hope that we can find the shield soon so that we can leave this kingdom." the Kitsune demi-human told her Master.

"I hope that we find this shield soon too," Naofumi agreed with her, "as I don't know what else these damn bastards well throw at us."

Kumiho didn't say anything seeing how she agreed with him, instead, she wanted to talk to him about Raphtalia. She wanted to help the young girl before things get too much for her. "Master, would you mind if we finish the conversation that we had earlier about Raphtalia and slavery?"

"Sure, I really want to know how to deal with her, as her actions are making me feel uneasy." Naofumi explained to his slave.

"Will let me start off by explaining the types of slaves there are, to help you understand more about slavery as a whole." Kumiho told her Master, "Now there are four legal types of slavery in this world, the first is Criminal Slaves, these are slaves that have committed a crime. This is to keep the prison less crowded. Although a few of these Criminal Slaves aren't real criminals, they are framed to get them out of the way for one reason or another. In fact, from what I am able to gather, this kingdom does this a few times, but to keep a face that they don't normally do human slavery, they rarely sell them here but send them away. They would only openly sell human slaves if they want to send a message for some reason."

Naofumi only scoffed at this, it didn't really surprise him that this happened seeing how this kingdom worked, he suspected a lot of people are framed for something that they didn't do. And secretly doing human slavery didn't surprise him either. If he was honest with himself, if it didn't start a war, he suspected that he would have become one of those falsely framed for a crime he didn't commit and sold as a slave.

"The next type of slaves are Debt Slaves," Kumiho went on to explain the next type of slaves, "these slaves are those who gain a huge amount of debt to someone and are forced to become a slave to pay off a debt. The problem here is that this is one of the most basic types of slaves you might find. As there are many who would purposely raise the interest in the debt to force a person into slavery. Seeing how difficult it is to know if someone purposely raises the interest in a debt, it's hard to know who this happened to."

Once again, Naofumi wasn't that surprised about this, as this would be the easiest way to put someone into slavery. All a person had to do was raise the interest of the debt as Kumiho said or, make it so that the person had a hard time paying the debt off. Have someone steal a person's money, break things that need to be fixed and so on, so that the debt would be hard to pay and be forced into slavery. This sort of thing used to happen in his world too sadly.

"The third type of slaves is Volunteer Slaves, these types of slaves are those who volunteer to become slaves, on their own free will." Kumiho explained about their third type of slavery.

"Why would someone volunteer to become a slave?" Naofumi asked in shock, he couldn't believe that someone would be willing to become a slave without a good damn reason.

"For money mainly." Kumiho informed her Master.

'_Yeap, that would do it.'_ Naofumi thought to himself.

"If someone is desperate enough, needing money for the family or need it for another reason, they would sell themselves into slavery so that their family would get the money to live off of." Kumiho explained to the Shield Hero, "Another reason someone would volunteer to become a slave is if the family or someone close to them is in trouble that money can't solve, so they would sell themselves to solve the problem. Some people would use this to create Volunteer Slaves, creating problems that force a person into becoming a Volunteer Slave."

"I bet they do." Naofumi said darkly.

"It isn't as bad as you might think Master," explained Kumiho, "as the plans to force someone into a Volunteer Slave takes a long time or the person finds another way to solve the problem and so don't become a Volunteer Slave. Because of this, unless they really want the slave and can't find another way to make them into a slave, people don't normally try this way."

Naofumi could understand this, why take a risky plan to make someone into a slave when it could fail when there were easier ways to make someone into a slave?

"Now the fourth type of slaves are Born Slaves." explained Kumiho.

"I can guess these types of slaves," Naofumi said suddenly, already knowing what they are, "whilst I don't think they had a name in my world, but if one or both of the parents was a slave unless the owner recognises as their child own and wants it, otherwise the child become a slave from the moment that they are born."

"That is true and other than Debt Slaves, these are the most common slaves among the demi-humans." explained Kumiho, "As they are free and easier to get."

"Why is it common among the demi-humans?" Naofumi asked in interest.

"As with certain demi-humans, they give birth to a litter of children instead of one or two." explained Kumiho, "Take the Weasel demi-human for example, they can give birth to around four to six children. Not only that, but they can sometimes give birth at least twice a year. So that means an owner can get up to twelve Weasel demi-human slaves a year for free. Add to the fact that once they get to the right age to go out and level up, there are some owners, depending what they want their slaves for, would have their slaves level up so that they become adults much sooner. This way they would have strong fighters and adult sex slaves much sooner than normal."

Naofumi could see the sense in doing this, whilst he didn't like the idea of them doing this for sex slaves, for fighters he could understand. He was doing the same thing with Raphtalia, levelling her up and making her stronger so that she could fight for him better, so he had no room to complain about that.

"Now lastly there's another way for Slave Traders to gain slaves, but this one is illegal in doing so, getting them from questionable sources." explained Kumiho, "Most call them Forced Slaves, seeing how they have no say in this."

"And the others do have a say in it?" asked Naofumi, not believing what he just heard.

"It might not seem like it, but as long as they don't commit a crime or don't run afoul of an underhanded person and pay their debts back, they do have more of a say." explained Kumiho, "As Forced Slaves are kidnapped from their homes, streets and the like and sold into slavery, so having no say at all."

Putting it like that, Naofumi realized that she was right, the others did have more say than the Forced Slaves. But still, what has this got to do Raphtalia? So he asked, "This all good and all, learning about this worlds slavery, but when are you getting to the point about Raphtalia?"

"I'm almost there Master." Kumiho said with a bow of her head, "Now once they become slaves, there are four types of jobs they could end up doing, they can become either a Battle Slave, Domestic Slave, an Industry Slave and finally Sex Slaves. Domestic Slaves are normally one of the easiest of slaves to be, as all they have to worry about is cleaning, cooking and the like. Sure they might be treated badly, but at least that's the least of their worries.

"The Industry Slaves have it a little bit harder than Domestic Slaves, as they do all the toughest of jobs, like farming, building and mining. If things don't go as well as their owner wants like the building isn't right, the food wasn't harvested on time or gets as much mining done as expected, they would be punished.

"Battle Slaves on the other hand are forced to battle, sure the Slave Crests might force them in the Battle Arena, but once in there unless they fight fully they more often die. So these slaves are forced to train to become stronger or either die or have every bone in their body broken. They don't have an easy time of it at all."

Kumiho then saw her Master fold his arms and tapping one of his fingers on his arms, showing that he was becoming impatient. "Finally we get to Sex Slaves, and the problems they face and why Raphtalia is acting the way she is. You see there are two ways that a slave becomes a Sex Slave, the first is that they are raped over and over again until the slave's mind is broken and will do whatever their Master wants. But the problem with this is that they are good for very little else, their mind is broken and is unable to do much other than sleep, walk, and eat. Some might be able to talk, but you shouldn't expect much from them."

Naofumi felt ill at the thought, how could someone do this to other people so that the slave would become a Sex Slave? Breaking a person would not be very helpful at all, they would be very limited to what they could do.

"Thankfully only a few sick and twisted people keep doing this, they do it to their slaves because they dislike them for some reason. For this kingdom, it would be because they are demi-humans and don't care if they live or die." Kumiho explained with a hint of anger, something that Naofumi couldn't blame her for.

"Now, because most people don't like their slaves to be broken, seeing as it would mean a lot of work for them and the slaves would be useless other than fucking them, a potion was created." the vixen informed her Master, "The potion was first created for weasel demi-humans, as these demi-humans when they go into heat, if they don't have sex during this time, they often die. If that doesn't happen, they either go mad or they lose the ability to have children and might die the next time they go into heat and don't have sex."

Naofumi realized that it sounded a lot like the weasels back at his world. Whilst, not demi-humans, they do have the same problem when it comes to mating seasons. If they don't have sex, they would die. "Okay, how do this potion work on the weasel demi-humans? And how does this potion have to do with Raphtalia?" asked Naofumi.

"Well the potion would force the weasel demi-humans to go into heat early," explained Kumiho, "this would force them to have sex with their owners. Some use it differently, they would give the potion to the weasel demi-humans so that they would go into heat and wait. As if these demi-humans don't have sex, they would go through great pain before dying.

"However, seeing that many owners don't want to use these potions when they want to fuck their slaves, they decided to do something different." explained Kumiho, "So when they use the Heat Potions as they call it, instead of fucking him, they leave the demi-human feeling the need to have sex, just before its too late, the owner would give them the counter option to the Heat Potion and heal them. Then they would heal the slaves and wait a short while before starting again. They would keep doing this until the weasel demi-human could think of nothing else but sex and willing to have it whenever their masters want. This means that whilst they have sex with their master whenever they aren't broke and so can do other things for their master."

"What has this potion got to do with Raphtalia?" asked Naofumi, "Are you saying that she is in consent heat that unless I have sex with her, she'll die?"

"No, as she has a different Sexual Cercle than weasel demi-humans." Kumiho informed her Master. She would have liked to lie and say yes, but because of the Slave Crest, she couldn't lie to him. The only thing she could do was not tell him certain things and that's because of the spells placed on her before she became his slave, if it wasn't for that magic, there would be nothing that she couldn't tell him. Any questions he had, she had to answer.

"No, she has another potion," explained Kumiho, "after seeing how well the Heat Potion was, alchemists thought that creating a potion to help create Sex Slaves would be useful, seeing how people wanted a pleasant sex with their slaves. Something that they couldn't get if the slaves weren't enjoying it or were trying to fight it. So taking the idea of the Heat Potion, the alchemists spent the following years creating The Sex Slave Potion.

"The alchemists made it so that The Sex Slave Potion slowly changed the slave's mindset, they would slowly think that being a Sex Slave was fine. Not only that, whilst the slave might be trained another way should they get another Master, the potion would make it so that the slave becomes like how their first Master wants them. So if the Master likes dealing out pain, whilst the slave has the potion in them, they'll enjoy the pain over time and would be happy to receive the treatment much easier in the future without complaint or fight it."

"But what has this potion got to do with how Raphtalia has been acting?" asked Naofumi, he could understand the reason behind the potion, it was better to have a willing and co-operative than to have a slave that was resentful and uncooperative, trying to fight her role as a Sex Slave whenever they could.

"From what she told me about her past, I believe that her second Master slapped a potion into her food or drink unknowing to her." Kumiho told her Master as she remembered her talks with the young girl over the last week, mainly when they were having a bath together.

"Why would her former master do that to her?" asked Naofumi.

"How else would slaves become Sex Slaves?" Kumiho asked darkly, "Unlike me, there's not many who willing become Sex Slaves. Because of this, they would slap a potion to slowly change and encourage the slaves into become a Sex Slave."

"So are you saying that she still has the potion in her system?" asked Naofumi, "I would have thought that her the master that wanted her as a Sex Slave would have gaive her a potion or something to counter The Sex Slave Potion."

"Well Master, for The Sex Slave Potion to fad from her, a Master most have sex with her, so that she would fully become a Sex Slave." explained the Kitsune slave informed her Master, "So until she has sex and the bond of becoming a Sex Slave is fully formed, she'll be very clingy and affectionate towards her Master at the time. Not only that, but they become the way their master wants them. So if she has a Master who enjoys hurting his slaves, whilst she is on this potion, although she might have nightmares about it later, she'll slowly enjoy it and will believe that this is what her Master wants from her."

"So not only are you saying that she'll like being hurt," Naofumi growled at this, if he ever meets the man who did this to her, he would make him wish for death by the time he was done with them, "but you're telling me that for her to stop acting the way she is at the moment, I have to have sex with her."

"I'm afraid so Master," Kumiho told her Master with a bow of her head, know that he didn't like the idea, "this is the only known way to stop the potion other than finding the person who created it. Seeing how we don't know who the creator of the potion is, and each alchemist makes it differently, the only other is for you to have sex with her."

That wasn't fully true, as she knew a few people who could make the potion, but unless they knew the actual person, it could take a long time to find them. The time that they don't have, seeing how they needed to get stronger for the Waves. So it would be a waste of time to start looking for them, as much as she hates it, having her Master to fuck the young girl was the only thing that he could do to help her. But if her Master asks her directly if she knew anyone, she knew that she had to answer honestly.

"So unless you want her to jump you, you'll have to fuck her so she'll claim down. She'll stop being clingy and affectionate." explained the slave.

"Is there no other way?" asked Naofumi. He had no plans on fucking the young girl, but at the same time, he wasn't sure what to do about her.

"Other than tie her down when she tries something no." joked Kumiho.

"I might just do that." Naofumi said seriously, as he thought about what to do. At the moment the only thing he can come up with is to search for an alchemist to help them, in the hopes that they would find the right one. But seeing how they could be in another kingdom, it could take them weeks even months before they could find someone who could help him. "Well it kill her if I don't have sex with her?" asked Naofumi.

"No, but she'll become even more honey and in time she will try and make a move on you if you don't do something." Kumiho informed her Master.

"Well, for now, I'll have to order her not to make a move on me." Naofumi told her, hoping that'll do it.

"That'll only work for a while Master," Kumiho warned her Master, "when she becomes too honey, Slave Crest or not, she'll make a move. Even if the crest will punish her."

"I'll deal with that when the time comes, if I have to, I'll either tie her up or send her back to the Slave Trader. As I have no plans at all to have sex with any women for a long while." the Shield Hero told her. He didn't like the idea of sending her back, but thanks to the Bitch Princess, he had lost all interest in sex and had no plans to have sex. At the very least whilst he was in this world.

"I understand Master." Kumiho bowed her head, she did understand, after what the First Princess did to him, it was no wonder what he has no interest in sex any more.

But the problem is that Raphtalia needed this too, she needed a Master who would treat her fairly and not hurt her, and Kumiho believed that her Master was the person Raphtalia needed. But her Master needed this too, he needed to get over what happened to him, as it could ruin his life should he go back to his world. She had to think of something to fix this so that he would be interested in sex once again. So she had to think about this carefully.

Seeing how it was getting late, and that her Master would need a few hours of sleep to keep his strength up, she said, "Master, why don't you get a few hours sleep and I'll keep watch for a while."

"Are you sure?" the young man asked.

"I am Master," Kumiho bowed her head, "we'll need you at full strength just in case something happens."

Naofumi had to admit that she was right, he would be no use protecting anyone if he wasn't at full strength, so he said, "Okay, but call me in at least five hours, so you can get some sleep. You too need to be at full strength."

"Understood Master." said Kumiho, as Naofumi left to get some rest. This allowed Kumiho time to think, to make a plan that could change Naofumi's view on sex. She just hopes that whatever she plans, it'll work and don't make things worse.

_**To be Continued! **_

_**Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END:**_ Here ends another chapter of Rising of the Shield Demon, once again I'm sorry for the delay, as I said I had writer's block and been working on two other stories. So I hope this chapter was worth the wait and you enjoyed the chapter.

Now I would like your help, I'm trying to explain why the other three heroes didn't get stronger over time, even after seeing how strong Naofumi was even though he is considered as the weakest. Here, I have shown that Itsuki is trying to fight the unjust and fix things as well as levelling up, instead of prioritising in fighting the Waves of Calamity and getting stronger first and dealing with the injustice after the world is saved.

**But what about Ren and Motoyasu, how should I write it to explain why they are weak other than only levelling up. I would like to hear your ideas and how Naofumi could find out about them. As I would like him to try and point them out to the heroes to try and make them better fighters so that they can be useful later.**

**Another thing I would like to ask is how should I handle the temples, how would you like them to be set up. I'm ideas for Healing and Fighting, how should Naofumi gain these abilities? Unlike Tombs, I don't want battles but some sort of challenge or something to get them. I hope that you can help me.**

Now I would like your thoughts on two ideas that I have. The first is about The Three Hero Church. The idea came from a review from my side-story of this story: One thing I've been thinking about the THC (three hero church) want to take over the world when their stronghold is a small kingdom. They may have a superweapon but both version of it impractical for taking over the world and maybe the waves. They need something more like soldier pill from Injustice or clones

So I was thinking about it and thought that it would be an interesting idea, having the Pope have his own base somewhere to create a force to deal with the Shield Demon for whenever he would come about again. Not Only that, but to build a force to take over Melromarc. Not only that, but when the Pope dies, the Church doesn't disappear just like that, seeing how we see very little of them in the anime. It would be interesting to see with the idea that I have, to see more of them. But I would like your thoughts about them, would you like to see more of the Three Hero Church?

Finally, I was thinking of having Naofumi use his alchemist skills to change himself slowly into a demon. But the first thing I was thinking was that he uses his alchemist on himself to create a new arm once he loses one of his old ones. But I would like your thoughts on this.

Now I have someone helping me with this story, whilst he found the idea of Naofumi getting a mechanical arm interesting, he didn't think that the Shield would allow it, as it would just mean he's going to use that as a weapon. He believes that as the Shield Hero, he believes that Naofumi needs to focus on his defenses, his attack stat should not be the thing everyone is focusing on.

Not that he would be wrong, but seeing how he has one weapon already as a shield along with going to fight with his hands and feet, don't see the problem. Not only that, but most of Naofumi's shields will be focused on defense, any attack points will be low unless it comes from a powerful monster.

Although my friend did make out a good point how it can be impossible for Naofumi getting a mechanical arm, and his point was Glass. She was able to beat the shit out of the other heroes in one move, but he was able to take that attack multiple times and protect his team as well. So if he could defend himself against Glass that well, how would he lose his arm?

My friend also says that if he actually got an arm cut off, Naofumi would just go for cutting off the arm that has the stupid shield on it so he could actually use a weapon and not restricted by the holy weapon. Not that I think that would work, seeing how it is shown that the Legendary Weapons would reappear, so it is more than likely if he cut off the arm with the Shield on, the Shield would only appear on his other arm.

On the note of having Naofumi using alchemy to making him into a demon, I'm also going to have Lilith send demons to fight Naofumi, where once defeated well become new shields. I have a few demon ideas, the Seven Sins, a rock like Demon and two sex demons. But I would like other ideas for demonic shields, along with equipment bonuses. So if you can, I would like to hear what demons I could use as shields.


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